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til/mac/write-system-clipboard-to-a-file.md
2024-12-01 09:58:15 -06:00

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# Write System Clipboard To A File
MacOS has two CLI utilities `pbcopy` and `pbpaste` which, respectively, copy
_to_ and paste _from_ the system clipboard via the CLI.
Let's say I've just copied a large block of text from somewhere onto my system
clipboard. I now want to paste that into a new file. Instead of creating a new
file, opening it up in my preferred editor, pasting all that text, and saving
the file, I can run one small command from the CLI.
```bash
$ pbpaste > data.txt
```
This redirects the contents of `pbpaste` (which is the system clipboard) into
the file `data.txt`. If that file doesn't already exist, then it will be
created before the data is written to it.
See `man pbpaste` for more details.