Emacs macOS Clipboard

An Emacs extension for communicating with macOS pasteboard server

Introduction

Emacs can read or write into the clipboard. However, macOS provides more function than only reading or writing strings.

macOS pasteboards can provide multi items simultaneously, with one item saved as different presentations.

For example copying two files from Finder.app

(macos-clipboard-extract-pasteboard)
((("public.file-url" . "file:///Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs")
  ("public.utf16-external-plain-text" . "\377\376E^@m^@a^@c^@s^@^M^@l^@i^@b^@e^@x^@e^@c^@")
  ("public.utf8-plain-text" . "Emacs^Mlibexec"))
 (("public.file-url" . "file:///Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/libexec/")))

This package provide the deeper function of macOS pasteboard by bridging macOS Pasteboard API.

Installation

This package need Swift Package Manager to install

make all

for Doom Emacs

add the config to package.el

(when IS-MAC
  (package! macos-clipboard
    :recipe (:host github
             :repo "citrus-lemon/emacs-macos-clipboard"
             :files ("*.el" "*.so")
             :pre-build ("make" "all"))))

Usage

Get screenshot from pasteboard

(macos-clipboard-extract-pasteboard)
;; screenshot from pasteboard
((("public.png" . "<binary data>")))

Copy HTML version when using ⌘-C in org-mode.

This works when you copy your org-mode docs to Slack, Google Docs with keeping format.

(require 'macos-clipboard)

(defun macos-clipboard-org-kill-new (str)
  (kill-new str)
  (macos-clipboard-set-string
   (org-export-string-as str 'html t '(:with-toc nil :inline-image local))
   "public.html"))

(defun macos-clipboard-org-copy-region-as-kill (beg end &optional region)
  (interactive (list (mark) (point) 'region))
  (let ((str (if region
                 (funcall region-extract-function nil)
               (filter-buffer-substring beg end))))
    (macos-clipboard-org-kill-new str))
  (setq deactivate-mark t)
  nil)

(eval-after-load 'org
  '(define-key org-mode-map (kbd "s-c") 'macos-clipboard-org-copy-region-as-kill))

Attach picture or file path when ⌘-V in org-mode

When you paste into org-mode files, it will insert a path link if you are copying a file or saving the pasteboard picture into org-attach-id-dir when copying a picture.

(require 'url-util)
(require 'org-attach)
(require 'macos-clipboard)

(defun smart-copy-attach-file (file-url &optional arg &rest _)
  (let* ((file-url (url-unhex-string file-url))
         (filepath (url-filename (url-generic-parse-url file-url)))
         (dir-p    (file-directory-p filepath))
         (basename (file-name-base filepath)))
    (if (and (equal arg '(4)) (not dir-p))
        (progn
          (message "Attach file: %s" filepath)
          (org-attach-attach filepath nil 'cp)
          (org-insert-link nil (expand-file-name (file-name-nondirectory filepath) (org-attach-dir)) basename))
      (progn
        (message "Copy file path: %s" filepath)
        (org-insert-link nil filepath basename)))))

(defvar uniform-type-identifiers-file-extension-alist
  '(("public.jpeg" . "jpg")
    ("public.png"  . "png")
    ("public.tiff" . "tiff"))
  "Alist of (UTI . IMAGE-EXTENSION) pairs.")

(defun smart-copy-attach-picture (content &optional arg ext)
  (setq ext (cdr (assoc ext uniform-type-identifiers-file-extension-alist)))
  (let* ((basename (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%dd%Hh%Mm%Ss%6N"))
         (filename (file-name-with-extension basename ext))
         (attach-dir (org-attach-dir 'get-create))
         (filepath (expand-file-name filename attach-dir)))
    (with-temp-file filepath
      (insert content))
    (org-insert-link nil (concat "file:" filepath) nil)
    (org-redisplay-inline-images)))

(defun smart-copy-copy-html (html &optional arg &rest _)
  (if (not (equal arg '(4)))
      'skip
    (insert
     (with-temp-buffer
       (insert html)
       (shell-command-on-region (point-min) (point-max) "pandoc -f html -t org" nil t)
       (buffer-substring (point-min) (point-max))))
    (sit-for 0)))

(defvar smart-copy-org-handlers
  `(
    ("public.jpeg" . smart-copy-attach-picture)
    ("public.png"  . smart-copy-attach-picture)
    ("public.tiff" . smart-copy-attach-picture)
    ("public.html" . smart-copy-copy-html)
    ("public.file-url" . smart-copy-attach-file))
  "Handlers for org-mode smart copy")

(defun smart-copy-org-yank-generic (command &optional arg)
  (if (ns-selection-owner-p 'CLIPBOARD)
      (call-interactively command)
    (let ((handlers smart-copy-org-handlers)
          (clipboard (when smart-copy-org-handlers
                       (car-safe (macos-clipboard-extract-pasteboard
                                  (mapcar #'car smart-copy-org-handlers)))))
          selected-handler)
      (while (and handlers (not selected-handler))
        (setq selected-handler
              (assoc (caar handlers) clipboard))
        (when (eq 'skip
                  (when selected-handler
                    (funcall (cdar handlers) (cdr selected-handler) arg (car selected-handler))))
          (setq selected-handler nil))
        (pop handlers))
      (unless selected-handler
        (call-interactively command)))))

(defun smart-copy-org-yank (&optional arg)
  (interactive "P")
  (smart-copy-org-yank-generic 'org-yank arg))

(define-key org-mode-map (kbd "s-v") #'smart-copy-org-yank)