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Clipboard Manager

A lightweight clipboard history tool for Linux — triggered by a global hotkey

Overview · Features · Installation · Usage · Configuration · Service

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Overview

Clipboard Manager is a minimal background utility that tracks your clipboard history and surfaces it through a clean floating window — activated from anywhere on your desktop with Ctrl + Alt + V.

It runs silently as a background process (or a systemd service), monitors clipboard changes every 500ms, and stores up to 15 recent entries. Clicking any entry copies it back to the clipboard and closes the window.

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Features

• Global hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + V) to open the history window from any application
• Stores up to 15 unique clipboard entries, newest first
• Duplicate detection — re-copied text is moved to the top rather than duplicated
• Draggable floating window with no taskbar entry (overrideredirect)
• Scrollable entry list with single-click paste and auto-close
• Runs as a systemd service for automatic startup on login
• One-command setup script with automatic dependency installation

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Tech Stack

Component	Library	Role
GUI	customtkinter	Floating history window
Clipboard	pyperclip	Read & write clipboard content
Hotkey	keyboard	Global Ctrl + Alt + V listener
Threading	threading (stdlib)	Non-blocking clipboard monitor loop
Service	systemd	Auto-start on graphical login

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Installation

Requirements

• Linux (X11 display server)
• Python 3.8+
• pip3
• sudo access (for systemd service setup)

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Quick Setup

Clone the repository and run the setup script:

git clone https://github.com/Rickidevs/Clipboard.git
cd Clipboard
chmod +x setup.sh
./setup.sh

The script will:

1. Install any missing Python dependencies (pyperclip, customtkinter, keyboard)
2. Copy Clipboard.py to /opt/Clipboard/
3. Create and register a systemd service (clipboard_monitor.service)
4. Enable and start the service automatically

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Manual Dependency Install

If you prefer to install dependencies manually:

pip3 install pyperclip customtkinter keyboard

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Run Without Setup

To test the tool without installing the service:

python3 Clipboard.py

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Usage

Once the service is running (or the script is active), the tool works silently in the background.

Action	Result
Copy anything (Ctrl+C)	Entry is added to history automatically
Press Ctrl + Alt + V	Opens the floating history window
Click an entry	Copies it to clipboard and closes the window
Press Escape	Closes the window
Drag the title bar	Repositions the window

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Configuration

All visual and behavioral settings are defined as constants at the top of Clipboard.py:

MAX_HISTORY     = 15          # Maximum number of entries to keep
WINDOW_WIDTH    = 380         # Floating window width (px)
WINDOW_HEIGHT   = 450         # Floating window height (px)
BACKGROUND_COLOR = "#1F1F1F"  # Window background
BUTTON_COLOR     = "#2B2B2B"  # Entry button color
BUTTON_HOVER     = "#3A3A3A"  # Entry button hover color
ACCENT_COLOR     = "#E0E0E0"  # Entry text color
HIGHLIGHT_COLOR  = "#00ADB5"  # Accent / highlight color

To change the hotkey, find this line in Clipboard.py:

keyboard.add_hotkey('ctrl + alt + v', show_clipboard_history)

Replace 'ctrl + alt + v' with any combination supported by the keyboard library, for example 'ctrl + shift + c'.

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Running as a System Service

The setup script registers a systemd user service that starts automatically after the graphical session is ready.

Service file location

/etc/systemd/system/clipboard_monitor.service

Useful service commands

# Check current status
sudo systemctl status clipboard_monitor.service

# Stop the service
sudo systemctl stop clipboard_monitor.service

# Restart after making changes
sudo systemctl restart clipboard_monitor.service

# Disable autostart
sudo systemctl disable clipboard_monitor.service

# View logs
journalctl -u clipboard_monitor.service -f

The service includes a 15-second startup delay (ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 15) to ensure the display environment is fully initialized before the GUI launches.

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Project Structure

Clipboard/
├── Clipboard.py      # Main application — GUI, hotkey, clipboard monitor
└── setup.sh          # Automated install & systemd service registration

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Built by Rickidevs