on my Windows 10 machine I have an Ubuntu WSL installed with Ruby version 2.7.0. In my Ruby script I'm trying to take a value from a variable and copy it to the clipboard.
In looking into this I found out there isn't any real straight forward way to do this natively. I did find this SO post about a gem someone created to access the clipboard easily (here is the link to the github repo). I went through all the steps to install it and reference it in my gemfile, but the variable value is not getting copied to my clipboard for some reason.
Here's my code in my Ruby script:
puts data2
Clipboard.clear
Clipboard.copy(data2);p
at this point in my script the value I want to copy to the clipboard is in data2 and I verify the value is in there by putting it out to the console. I then try to clear the clipboard and then copy data2 to the clipboard as instructed in the github page. I run my script and it finishes but then when I try to paste the value that is on my clipboard it is not the value I am expecting (the value that is on my clipboard is the value that was on it before I ran my Ruby script).
Previously I had this working on a Mac using this code:
IO.popen('pbcopy', 'r+') { |clipboard| clipboard.puts data2 }
but this doesn't work on WSL because I believe pbcopy is a Mac OS thing.
One thing to note is that when I run my Ruby script it does give me this warning:
ruby: warning: shebang line ending with \r may cause problems
but I don't see how that would prevent the variable value from being saved to my clipboard.
Please can someone give me some insight into why this isn't working as expected, or even a different/better way of copying the variable value to my clipboard so I can paste the value after my Ruby script finishes running? As always a correct, clearly explained answer will be marked as accepted and upvoted.
Thanks!
Thanks to #max for the insight. I was able to come up with a solution that does what I need it to, here's the code:
exec( "echo '#{data2}' | clip.exe" )
this code snippet takes the value stored inside data2 and copys it to the clipboard. When the script has finished running in my Ubuntu WSL, I can paste and the value on my clipboard is the value that was contained in data2 when the script was running.
Hope this helps anyone else with this question.
Related
I am trying to learn UNIX.
I am using a book called “Wicked Cool Shell Scripts”.
I am told that .bash_profile contains my login for bash and that I can add paths to it so that commands I enter in Terminal will find the scripts I am writing.
The contents of my current bash_profile is:
export PATH=~/bin:$PATH
When I type echo $PATH I get:
/usr/local/opt/php#7.0/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.3/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin
I would like to add a path so that - as the book suggests - I can write scripts and refer to them directly from the command line, instead of having to constantly navigate to that directory to run them.
I have a file with a shebang. It runs fine when I type its name and am in the same directory. I have moved that file to the folder scripts, which is located under crg/Users/ (ie: Users/crg/scripts)
According to this book, I can now alter my $PATH to include that directory, so that when I type that filename, the program will run.
I cannot do this successfully.
I don’t know why.
After every edit, I quit terminal and reopen it, to ensure it is using the newly edited bash_profile.
As per the books instructions on page 5, I have tried entering this in my bash_profile:
export PATH=”/Users/crg/scripts/:$PATH”
I save my bash_profile, quit Terminal, reopen it and type echo $Path
This is the result:
”/Users/crg/scripts/:??
This is not right. In fact, it's wildly wrong. And it does not allow me to run scripts from the folder indicated. It also seems to completely overwrite whatever was in the bash_profile before this, so I cannot - after doing this 'simple edit' suggested by a 'professional' - run a php -version command from the Terminal.
I am at a complete loss as to why this is happening.
Why is there a quotation mark at the beginning of this line (but not at the end)?
What's with the colon and the 2 question marks at the end of this line?
How do I add/append a path to my bash_profile?
More questions:
When I try and solve this on my own using “the Internet”, I discover many interesting versions of this ‘simple’ process: Here’s one suggested by a ‘professional’:
export PATH="${PATH}:/path/to/program/inside/package"
This is very different from what the book says...
Here’s another version of ‘how to do it’ by ‘a professional’:
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin/modemZapp
Notice that this one doesn’t even have quotes. In both, the PATH variable comes before the actual path.
Why are there so many 'versions' of how to perform this simple task?
Can someone please tell me how to add a path to my .bash_profile?
UPDATE: I have followed the advice here, (add it to etc/paths) but this does not work either.
I get the exact same thing when I type echo $PATH in a new Terminal:
/usr/local/opt/php#7.0/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.5/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.3/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr:/usr/local/share/npm/bin:/Users/fhb/scripts:/opt/X11/bin
I can't help but note a comment on that last page: "I have been through at least a dozen different methods for adding directories to $PATH. Why are there so many and why do so few of them work?"
To answer your first question if you look closely your quotes are ” instead of ". I'm guessing you edited either your bash_profile or this post in a rich text editor instead of a plain text one. I would recommend notepad for Windows or nano for *nix if you are writing code. To fix this issue, replace the ” with ".
To answer your second question, bash is quite forgiving and will allow you to set a string variable in multiple different ways, even without quotes. However you can run into issues when a string contains whitespace, for example: /Users/lilHenry/my scripts.
The "${PATH}" syntax is just another way to declare a string. It has the benefit that it allows you to interpolate variables into a string like so:
prefix="foo"
echo "${prefix}bar"
This will output foobar, whereas echo "$prefixbar" will not output anything as the variable prefixbar has not been set. I would suggest sticking with the export PATH="/Users/me/bin:$PATH" syntax.
I saw >_ in bash shell icon in mac and was wondering what it will do.
I tried performing the command but I was not able to figure out what happened. My command prompt silently came again.
It should be doing something, that's why it is in the icon for terminal.
Do anyone know what it does and can it be used for something?
Running >_ will successfully run (nothing), redirected to a file named _. It's not terribly useful, but that's what it does. The most useful empty redirection I've seen is to empty the contents of a file with it:
> /var/log/app.log
which, if app.log is not open by another process, will result in /var/log/app.log being empty.
I was trying to figure out how to work the command line switch -r.
My understanding is that the code is typed out as follows:
ruby -r*nameOfRequired*
I am finding that this is not the case. When I type out the above and press enter, the terminal expects an "end of input syntax" and does not continue.
What am I missing? Does there need to be a space in between the switch and the name of the required file?
Please and thank you!
EDIT:
I am currently reading "The Well Grounded Rubyist" by David A. Black, and I came up with this question while reading the section on command line switches.
Having said that, I created a "test.rb" file, containing:
puts Date.today
Then, in the terminal, I typed out:
ruby -r date
I thought this would 'require' the date module, and then enable me to run the "test.rb" file, using ruby test.rb (given that I am in the correct directory).
Instead, the terminal cursor moves to a newline, expecting more input. Let me know if I need to clarify anything else. Thanks!
If you just type ruby -rmodule, then Ruby will load the module and wait for you to type the main program that requires that module.
If you just want to run the module and do nothing else, you can do do rubyfull-path-to-module without the -r, or ruby -rmodule -e exit, or ruby -rmodule </dev/null, or similar.
In general, the ruby command does not record any state from one run to the next, so you need to tell it every thing that it needs to know whenever you run it.
Whenever you run it, you need to tell it the main program to run or else it will expect you to type that program on the standard input. The -r does not specify the main program.
Try this:
ruby -rdate test.rb
According to ruby -h:
-rlibrary require the library, before executing your script
Without giving your script file path, it read the script from stdin.
Try following (You can omit script file path when you give -e command):
ruby -r**nameOfRequired** -e ""
I am creating a new CLI application, where I want to get some sensitive input from the user. Since, this input can be quite descriptive as well as the information is a bit sensitive, I wanted to allow user to enter a command like this from this app:
app new entry
after which, I want to provide user with a VIM session where he can write this descriptive input, which when he exits from this VIM session, will be captured by my script and used for further processing.
Can someone tell me a way (probably some hidden VIM feature - since, I am always amazed by them) so that I can do so, without creating any temporary file? As explained in a comment below, I would prefer a some-what in-memory file, since the information can be a bit sensitive, and hence, I would like to process it first via my script and then only, write it to disk in an encrypted manner.
Git actually does this: when you type git commit, a new Vim instance is created and a temporary file is used in this instance. In that file, you type your commit message
Once Vim gets closed again, the content of the temporary file is read and used by Git. Afterwards, the temporary file gets deleted again.
So, to get what you want, you need the following steps:
create a unique temporary file (Create a tempfile without opening it in Ruby)
open Vim on that file (Ruby, Difference between exec, system and %x() or Backticks)
wait until Vim gets terminated again (also contained in the above SO thread)
read the tempoarary file (How can I read a file with Ruby?)
delete the temporary file (Deleting files in ruby)
That's it.
You can make shell create file descriptors attached to your function and make vim write there, like this: (but you need to split script in two parts: one that calls vim and one that processes its input):
# First script
…
vim --cmd $'aug ScriptForbidReading\nau BufReadCmd /proc/self/fd/* :' --cmd 'aug END' >(second-script)
. Notes:
second-script might actually be a function defined in first script (at least in zsh). This also requires bash or zsh (tested only on the latter).
Requires *nix, maybe won’t work on some OSes considered to be *nix.
BufReadCmd is needed because vim hangs when trying to read write-only descriptor.
It is suggested that you set filetype (if needed) right away, without using ftdetect plugins: in case your script is not the only one which will use this method.
Zsh will wait for second-script to finish, so you may continue script right after vim command in case information from second-script is not needed (it would be hard to get from there).
Second script will be launched from a subshell. Thus no variable modifications will be seen in code running after vim call.
Second script will receive whatever vim saves on standard input. Parent standard input is not directly accessible, but using </dev/tty will probably work.
This is for zsh/bash script. Nothing will really prevent you from using the same idea in ruby (it is likely more convenient and does not require splitting into two scripts), but I do not know ruby enough to say how one can create file descriptors in ruby.
Using vim for this seems like overkill.
The highline ruby gem might do what you need:
require 'highline'
irb> pw = HighLine.new.ask('info: ') {|q| q.echo = false }
info:
=> "abc"
The user's text is not displayed when you set echo to false.
This is also safer than creating a file and then deleting it, because then you'd have to ensure that the delete was secure (overwriting the file several times with random data so it can't be recovered; see the shred or srm utilities).
The headline should pretty much say it all. I'm using windows 7, installed cygwin, set it up, created a .rb-File which looks like this:
print "Test"
(Impressive stuff, eh?)
Now, using Cygwin, I want to execute it, I tried
chmod +x ruby.rb
afterwards
./ruby.rb
The following message comes up:
Unable to initialize device PRN
Any ideas?
Thanks!
You forgot the "she-bang" line. Without it it will be interpreted as a bash script, not a ruby script.
The print command that bash finds is Window's print.exe, which wants to print to a physical priner, rather than print to the screen.
Add "#!/usr/bin/env ruby" as the first line of the file.