How to send data to local clipboard from a remote SSH session

I'm resurrecting this thread because I've been looking for the same kind of solution, and I've found one that works for me. It's a minor modification to a suggestion from OSX Daily.

In my case, I use Terminal on my local OSX machine to connect to a linux server via SSH. Like the OP, I wanted to be able to transfer small bits of text from terminal to my local clipboard, using only the keyboard.

The essence of the solution:

commandThatMakesOutput | ssh desktop pbcopy

When run in an ssh session to a remote computer, this command takes the output of commandThatMakesOutput (e.g. ls, pwd) and pipes the output to the clipboard of the local computer (the name or IP of "desktop"). In other words, it uses nested ssh: you're connected to the remote computer via one ssh session, you execute the command there, and the remote computer connects to your desktop via a different ssh session and puts the text to your clipboard.

It requires your desktop to be configured as an ssh server (which I leave to you and google). It's much easier if you've set up ssh keys to facilitate fast ssh usage, preferably using a per-session passphrase, or whatever your security needs require.

Other examples:

ls  | ssh desktopIpAddress pbcopy
pwd |  ssh desktopIpAddress pbcopy

For convenience, I've created a bash file to shorten the text required after the pipe:

#!/bin/bash
ssh desktop pbcopy

In my case, i'm using a specially named key

I saved it with the file name cb (my mnemonic (ClipBoard). Put the script somewhere in your path, make it executable and voila:

ls | cb

Reverse tunnel port on ssh server

All the existing solutions either need:

• X11 on the client (if you have it, xclip on the server works great) or
• the client and server to be in the same network (which is not the case if you're at work trying to access your home computer).

Here's another way to do it, though you'll need to modify how you ssh into your computer.

I've started using this and it's nowhere near as intimidating as it looks so give it a try.

Client (ssh session startup)

ssh [email protected] -R 2000:localhost:2000

(hint: make this a keybinding so you don't have to type it)

Client (another tab)

nc -l 2000 | pbcopy

Note: if you don't have pbcopy then just tee it to a file.

Server (inside SSH session)

cat some_useful_content.txt | nc localhost 2000

Other notes

Actually even if you're in the middle of an ssh session there's a way to start a tunnel but i don’t want to scare people away from what really isn’t as bad as it looks. But I'll add the details later if I see any interest

Found a great solution that doesn't require a reverse ssh connection!

You can use xclip on the remote host, along with ssh X11 forwarding & XQuartz on the OSX system.

To set this up:

1. Install XQuartz (I did this with soloist + pivotal_workstation::xquartz recipe, but you don't have to)
2. Run XQuartz.app
3. Open XQuartz Preferences (+,)
4. Make sure "Enable Syncing" and "Update Pasteboard when CLIPBOARD changes" are checked
5. ssh -X remote-host "echo 'hello from remote-host' | xclip -selection clipboard"

My favorite way is ssh [remote-machine] "cat log.txt" | xclip -selection c. This is most useful when you don't want to (or can't) ssh from remote to local.

Edit: on Cygwin ssh [remote-machine] "cat log.txt" > /dev/clipboard.

Edit: A helpful comment from nbren12:

It is almost always possible to setup a reverse ssh connection using SSH port forwarding. Just add RemoteForward 127.0.0.1:2222 127.0.0.1:22 to the server's entry in your local .ssh/config, and then execute ssh -p 2222 127.0.0.1 on the remote machine, which will then redirect the connection to the local machine. – nbren12