clipboardz

A cross-platform clipboard library for Zig.

Features

• Cross-Platform Support:
  • macOS: Uses NSPasteboard via Objective-C runtime.
  • Windows: Uses Win32 API (user32.dll).
  • Linux: Uses native X11 C API (libX11).
• Content Types:
  • Plain Text (text/plain, UTF8_STRING, CF_TEXT)
  • Rich Text (public.rtf, text/rtf, Rich Text Format)
  • HTML (public.html, text/html, HTML Format)

Installation

You can install clipboardz using zig fetch.

zig fetch --save git+https://github.com/taggon/clipboardz.git

Then, add it to your build.zig:

const clipboardz = b.dependency("clipboardz", .{
    .target = target,
    .optimize = optimize,
});
exe.root_module.addImport("clipboardz", clipboardz.module("clipboardz"));

Platform-Specific Linking

Different platforms require different system libraries to be linked. Here's how to configure your build.zig:

pub fn build(b: *std.Build) void {
    const target = b.standardTargetOptions(.{});
    const optimize = b.standardOptimizeOption(.{});

    const exe = b.addExecutable(.{
        .name = "my-app",
        .root_source_file = b.path("src/main.zig"),
        .target = target,
        .optimize = optimize,
    });

    // Add clipboardz dependency
    const clipboardz = b.dependency("clipboardz", .{
        .target = target,
        .optimize = optimize,
    });
    exe.root_module.addImport("clipboardz", clipboardz.module("clipboardz"));

    // Link platform-specific libraries
    if (target.result.os.tag == .macos) {
        exe.linkSystemLibrary("objc");
        exe.linkFramework("Foundation");
        exe.linkFramework("AppKit");
    } else if (target.result.os.tag == .linux) {
        exe.linkSystemLibrary("X11");
        exe.linkLibC();
    } else if (target.result.os.tag == .windows) {
        exe.linkSystemLibrary("user32");
    }

    b.installArtifact(exe);
}

Linking Requirements by Platform:

• macOS: objc (Objective-C runtime), Foundation, AppKit frameworks
  • Used to access NSPasteboard for clipboard operations
• Linux: X11 library, libc
  • Used to interact with X11 clipboard (primary and clipboard selections)
• Windows: user32 library
  • Used for Win32 clipboard API

Usage

const std = @import("std");
const clipboard = @import("clipboardz");

pub fn main() !void {
    var gpa = std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{}){};
    defer _ = gpa.deinit();
    const allocator = gpa.allocator();

    // Initialize
    const cb = clipboard.Clipboardz.init(allocator);

    // Write Text
    try cb.writeText("Hello, Zig!");

    // Read Text
    const text = try cb.readText();
    defer allocator.free(text);
    std.debug.print("Read: {s}\n", .{text});

    // Write HTML
    try cb.writeHtml("<h1>Hello</h1>");

    // Check Content
    if (cb.has(.html)) {
        const html = try cb.readHtml();
        defer allocator.free(html);
        std.debug.print("HTML: {s}\n", .{html});
    }
}

Limitations & Future Work

Currently, the library supports Text, RichText, and HTML.

Support for the following content types is planned but not yet implemented:

• Images (PNG, JPEG, etc.)
• File Lists (Copying/Pasting files from file managers)

License

MIT