ClipShare - Desktop

Share Clipboard and Files. Copy on one device. Paste on another device.

ClipShare is a lightweight and cross-platform tool for clipboard sharing. ClipShare enables copying text, files, and images on one device and pasting on another. ClipShare is simple and easy to use while being highly configurable. This is the desktop client of ClipShare that connects to a server running on the other machine to share copied text, files, and images.

🚀 Quick-start

Download and install the ClipShare server: https://github.com/thevindu-w/clip_share_server/releases (Other installation methods are available in the Installation section of the server.)
Download and install the ClipShare client.
- Mobile client (Android): https://github.com/thevindu-w/clip_share_client/releases or apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.tw.clipshare
- Desktop client: https://github.com/thevindu-w/clip_share_desktop/releases (Other installation methods are available in the Installation section.)
Start sharing clipboard contents across devices.

Copy some text on one device and use the ClipShare client to share it from/to the device running the server.

More customization options, other installation options, and detailed instructions on each step are described below in the How to Use section.

Download

Server

Desktop
Download the server from Releases.

Client

Android	Desktop
Download the Android client app from IzzyOnDroid or from GitHub Releases.	Download the desktop client from Releases.

How to Use

GUI client

The GUI client provides a web interface similar to the mobile client app. The client app acts as a bridge to use the web interface. To use the client in this web GUI mode, you need to run the client program.

You can run the client from a terminal or by double-clicking on the program (if the file manager supports executing programs in that way).
When the client starts, it will not display any visible window or produce any output.
Once the client starts, open a web browser (ex: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, or any modern web browser) and visit http://localhost:8888/. This should open the ClipShare client web app. (The port 8888 can be changed in the configuration file)
Using the GUI client is similar to using the mobile client except the desktop client uses the Send File button to send both copied files and folders, and the Send Image button sends the copied image.
To use the desktop client to send copied text, files, or images, copy what you want to send (just like you would copy them to paste somewhere else). Then press the correct Send button on the web app (either Send Text, Send File, or Send Image). Then you can paste them on the machine that runs the ClipShare server.
To use the desktop client to receive copied text, an image, or files, copy the text or files on the machine that runs the ClipShare server. Then press the correct Get button on the web app (either Get Text, Get Image, or Get File). Then you can paste them on the machine that runs the client.
If something goes wrong, it will create a client_err.log file. That file will contain what went wrong.

CLI client

The CLI client enables using this desktop client with a command. To use the client in this CLI mode, you need to run the client program with the following command line arguments.

clip-share-client -c COMMAND <server-address-ipv4> [optional args]

Commands available:

sc : Scan - server address is not needed
g : Get copied text
s : Send copied text
fg : Get copied files
fs : Send copied files
i : Get image
ic : Get copied image
is : Get screenshot - Display number can be used as an optional arg.
si : Send copied image

Examples:

# Get copied text from the device having IP address 192.168.21.42
clip-share-client -c g 192.168.21.42

# Get a screenshot of screen number 1 from the device having IP address 192.168.21.42
clip-share-client -c is 192.168.21.42 1

# Scan and output IP addresses of available servers.
clip-share-client -c sc

Installation

Note: This section is optional if you prefer manually starting the server over automatically starting on login/reboot.

To install the client to run on startup, use the corresponding installer script for your platform.

Online installers

Online installer scripts are attached with the releases. They will download the corresponding version during the installation. Therefore, they do not require having the compiled binaries, along with the installer, to run it. However, they require internet access to download the binaries from GitHub during the installation. Run the interactive script and follow the instructions to install ClipShare desktop.

Linux and macOS

Open a terminal in the directory where the install-linux-mac.sh installer script is downloaded.
Run the install script as shown below, and follow the instructions of it.

chmod +x install-linux-mac.sh
./install-linux-mac.sh

Windows

Download the install-windows.bat file from release assets.
Double-click on the install-windows.bat installer script to run it. It will open a Command Prompt window. Follow the instructions on it to install ClipShare. (If double-clicking did not run the installer, right-click on it and select Run)

Standalone installers

Standalone installer scripts are available in the archives (zip for Windows and macOS, and tar.gz for Linux) attached to releases on GitHub. They are also available in the helper_tools/ directory. You must have the clip-share-client (or clip-share-client.exe on Windows) executable in the current working directory to run the installer. If you download the archive from releases and extract it, you will have the executable, along with the installer script. Run the interactive script and follow the instructions to install ClipShare.

Note: These installers do NOT need admin or superuser privileges to run. Therefore, do not run them with elevated privileges.

Linux and macOS

Open a terminal in the directory where the clip-share-client executable is available (the executable name may have suffixes like _GLIBC* on Linux or arm64 or x86_64 on macOS).
Run the install script as shown below, and follow the instructions of it.

# on Linux
chmod +x install-linux.sh
./install-linux.sh

# on macOS
chmod +x install-mac.sh
./install-mac.sh

Windows

Place the install-windows.bat file and the clip-share-client.exe executable in the same folder. (the executable name may have suffixes)
Double-click on the install-windows.bat installer script to run it. It will open a Command Prompt window. Follow the instructions on it to install ClipShare. (If double-clicking did not run the installer, right-click on it and select Run)

Homebrew (for macOS)

Note: If you have a previous installation of ClipShare desktop client installed using other methods (ex: installer scripts), please uninstall it before installing ClipShare with Homebrew to avoid conflicts.

ClipShare desktop client is available as a Homebrew service for macOS. Refer to the Homebrew repository for instructions on installing ClipShare desktop client with Homebrew.

apt, dnf, or yum (for Ubuntu or Fedora-based Linux)

Note: If you have a previous installation of ClipShare desktop client installed using other methods (ex: installer scripts), please uninstall it before installing ClipShare with the package manager to avoid conflicts.

ClipShare desktop client is available as deb and rpm packages for Linux. Refer to https://thevindu-w.github.io/clipshare-packages/ for instructions on installing ClipShare client with the default package manager.

Create SSL/TLS certificates and key files

Note: This section is optional if you do not need the TLS encrypted mode.

The following files should be created, and their paths should be specified in the configuration file clipshare.conf. You may use different file names and paths to store the keys and certificates.

client.pfx - SSL/TLS key and certificate file of the client
ca.crt - SSL/TLS certificate of the CA, which signed both the server's and the client's SSL/TLS certificates

Refer to the Create SSL/TLS certificates and key files section for more information on generating the TLS keys and certificates.

Auto-send options

The ClipShare desktop client can auto-send text and files when copied. This feature allows you to copy text or files on one device and paste on another device without manually sharing the content through the desktop client's interface. Use the following configuration options to enable this feature.

auto_send_text=true - To auto-send copied text.
auto_send_files=true - To auto-send copied files.

It is recommended to set the cut_sent_files configuration of the server to true when using the auto-send feature for files. Furthermore, use a temporary files directory as the working_dir configuration of the server when using auto-send option for files to avoid persisting unintended files on the server. You may use the following directories as the temporary directory, depending on the OS.

OS	Temporary directory
Windows	`C:\Users\<your_username>\AppData\Local\Temp`
macOS	`/tmp/`
Linux	`/tmp/`

Refer to the Configuration section for more information on the config file and available configuration options.

To use the auto-send feature to bi-directionally share copied text and files, you need to run both the server and the desktop client on both devices.

Configuration

The ClipShare desktop client can be configured using a configuration file. The configuration file should be named clipshare-desktop.conf. The application searches for the configuration file in the following paths in the same order until it finds one.

Current working directory where the application was started.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME directory if the variable is set to an existing directory (on Linux and macOS only).
~/.config/ directory if the directory exists (on Linux and macOS only).
Current user's home directory (also called user profile directory on Windows).

If it can't find a configuration file in any of the above directories, it will use the default values specified in the table below.

To customize the client, create a file named clipshare-desktop.conf in any of the directories mentioned above and add the following lines to that configuration file. You may omit some lines to keep the default values. Note that the configuration file must have UTF-8 or ASCII encoding.

Sample configuration file

app_port=4337
app_port_secure=4338
web_port=8888

secure_mode_enabled=true
client_cert=cert/client.pfx
ca_cert=cert/ca.crt
trusted_servers=trusted_servers.txt

working_dir=./path/to/work_dir
bind_address=127.0.0.1
cut_received_files=false

max_text_length=4194304
max_file_size=68719476736

min_proto_version=1
max_proto_version=3

auto_send_text=false
auto_send_files=false
auto_send_servers=auto_send_servers.txt

auto_send_max_files=32
auto_send_max_file_size=64M

tray_icon=true

Note that all the lines in the configuration file are optional. You may omit some lines if they need to get their default values.

Configuration options

Property	Description	Accepted values	Default
`app_port`	The TCP port on which the server listens for unencrypted TCP connections. (Refer to the corresponding configuration value of the server)	TCP port number used for the server (1 - 65535)	`4337`
`app_port_secure`	The TCP port on which the server listens for TLS-encrypted connections. (Refer to the corresponding configuration value of the server)	TCP port number used for the server (1 - 65535)	`4338`
`web_port`	The TCP port on which the application listens for connections from the web browser. This setting is used only for the GUI client. (Values below 1024 may require superuser/admin privileges)	Any valid, unused TCP port number (1 - 65535)	`8888`
`udp_port`	The UDP port on which the server listens for network scan requests. (Refer to the corresponding configuration value of the server)	UDP port number used for the server (1 - 65535)	`4337`
`secure_mode_enabled`	Whether or not the application listens for TLS-encrypted connections. The values `true` or `1` will enable it, while `false` or `0` will disable it.	`true`, `false`, `1`, `0` (Case insensitive)	`false`
`client_cert`	The TLS key and certificate store file of the client. This must be specified if the secure mode is enabled.	Absolute or relative path to the client's TLS certificate store PKCS#12 file	<Unspecified>
`ca_cert`	The TLS certificate file of the CA that signed the TLS certificate of the client. This must be specified if the secure mode is enabled.	Absolute or relative path to the TLS certificate PEM file of the CA	<Unspecified>
`trusted_servers`	The text file containing a list of trusted servers (Common Name of server certificate), one name per line. This must be specified if the secure mode is enabled.	Absolute or relative path to the trusted-servers file	<Unspecified>
`working_dir`	The working directory where the application should run. All the files and images, that are fetched from the server, will be saved in this directory. It will follow symlinks if this is a path to a symlink. The user running this application should have write access to the directory	Absolute or relative path to an existing directory	`.` (i.e. Current directory)
`bind_address`	The address of the interface to which the application should bind when listening for connections from the web browser in the GUI mode. It will listen on all interfaces if this is set to `0.0.0.0`. (Usually, this should have the loopback address `127.0.0.1` except for some rare cases)	IP address of an interface or wildcard address. IPv4 dot-decimal notation (ex: `192.168.37.5`) or `0.0.0.0`	`127.0.0.1`
`max_text_length`	The maximum length of text that can be transferred. This is the number of bytes of the text encoded in UTF-8.	Any integer between 1 and 4294967295 (nearly 4 GiB) inclusive. Suffixes K, M, and G (case insensitive) denote x10³, x10⁶, and x10⁹, respectively.	4194304 (i.e. 4 MiB)
`max_file_size`	The maximum size of a single file in bytes that can be transferred.	Any integer between 1 and 9223372036854775807 (nearly 8 EiB) inclusive. Suffixes K, M, G, and T (case insensitive) denote x10³, x10⁶, x10⁹, and x10¹², respectively.	68719476736 (i.e. 64 GiB)
`max_file_count`	The maximum number of files that can be received with the Get Files operation.	Any integer between 1 and 4294967294 inclusive.	4294967294
`cut_received_files`	Whether to automatically cut the files into the clipboard on the Get Files and Get Image methods.	`true`, `false`, `1`, `0` (Case insensitive)	`false`
`min_proto_version`	The minimum protocol version the client should accept from a server after negotiation.	Any protocol version number greater than or equal to the minimum protocol version the client has implemented. (ex: `1`)	The minimum protocol version the client has implemented
`max_proto_version`	The maximum protocol version the client should accept from a server after negotiation.	Any protocol version number less than or equal to the maximum protocol version the client has implemented. (ex: `3`)	The maximum protocol version the client has implemented
`auto_send_text`	Whether the application should auto-send the text when copied. The values `true` or `1` will enable auto-sending copied text, while `false` or `0` will disable the feature.	`true`, `false`, `1`, `0` (Case insensitive)	`false`
`auto_send_files`	Whether the application should auto-send files when copied. The values `true` or `1` will enable auto-sending copied files, while `false` or `0` will disable the feature.	`true`, `false`, `1`, `0` (Case insensitive)	`false`
`auto_send_servers`	The text file containing a list of IPv4 addresses (in dot-decimal notation, one address per line) of servers to allow auto-sending. If this is not specified or there are no valid IPv4 addresses in the file, all addresses are allowed.	Absolute or relative path to the server addresses file	<Unspecified>
`auto_send_max_files`	The maximum number of files to auto-send. The auto-send feature will not send files if the number of copied files exceeds this limit.	Any integer between 1 and 4294967295 inclusive	32
`auto_send_max_file_size`	The maximum size of any single file in bytes, transferred with auto-send.	Any integer between 1 and 9223372036854775807 (nearly 8 EiB) inclusive. Suffixes K, M, G, and T (case insensitive) denote x10³, x10⁶, x10⁹, and x10¹², respectively.	67108864 (i.e. 64 MiB)
`tray_icon`	Whether the application should display a system tray icon when running in GUI mode. The values `true` or `1` will display the icon, while `false` or `0` will prevent displaying the icon.	`true`, `false`, `1`, `0` (Case insensitive)	`true`

If you changed the configuration file, you must restart the server to apply the changes.

Build from Source

Note: If you prefer using the pre-built binaries from Releases, you can ignore this section and follow the instructions in the How to Use section.

Build tools

Compiling ClipShare Desktop needs the following tools,

gcc (or clang on Windows)
make
xxd

Linux

On Linux, these tools can be installed with the following command:

On Debian-based or Ubuntu-based distros,
```
sudo apt-get install gcc make xxd
```
On Redhat-based or Fedora-based distros,
```
sudo yum install gcc make xxd
```
On Arch-based distros,
```
sudo pacman -S gcc make tinyxxd
```

Windows

On Windows, these tools can be installed with MSYS2 using pacman with the following command:

pacman -S mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-clang make vim

macOS

On macOS, these tools are installed with Xcode Command Line Tools.

Dependencies

Linux

The following development libraries are required.

libc
libx11
libxmu
libunistring
libmicrohttpd

They can be installed with the following command:

On Debian-based or Ubuntu-based distros,

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev libx11-dev libxmu-dev libxfixes-dev libunistring-dev libmicrohttpd-dev libssl-dev

On Redhat-based or Fedora-based distros,

sudo yum install glibc-devel libX11-devel libXmu-devel libXfixes-devel libunistring-devel libmicrohttpd-devel openssl-devel

On Arch-based distros,
```
sudo pacman -S libx11 libxmu libxfixes libunistring libmicrohttpd openssl
```
glibc should already be available on Arch distros. But you may need to upgrade it with the following command. (You need to do this only if the build fails)
```
sudo pacman -S glibc
```

Windows

The following development libraries are required.

libmicrohttpd
libunistring
libssl (provided by OpenSSL)

In an MSYS2 environment, these libraries can be installed using pacman with the following command:

pacman -S mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-libunistring

Note: However, to avoid DLL loading issues, it is recommended to compile openssl from its source with the following configuration and use that instead of the mingw-w64-clang-x86_64-openssl packaged version.

OPENSSL_PATH='<Use a suitable existing empty directory path here>'
CC=clang ./Configure zlib no-zlib-dynamic no-brotli no-zstd no-shared no-tests no-docs --prefix="$OPENSSL_PATH" mingw64
make
make install

To use it, set the following environment variables in the shell used to build ClipShare.

export CPATH="${OPENSSL_PATH}/include"
export LIBRARY_PATH="${OPENSSL_PATH}/lib64"

Installing libmicrohttpd from GNU is recommended. You can download the library from ftpmirror.gnu.org/libmicrohttpd/libmicrohttpd-latest-w32-bin.zip and extract the files in it to the correct include and library directories in the MSYS2 environment. Alternatively, you may extract the library to a separate directory and set the CPATH and LIBRARY_PATH environment variables to the include and link-library paths, respectively.

Additionally, PatchPE should be available, and the PATH environment variable should be set accordingly. Download PatchPE from github.com/datadiode/PatchPE/releases/download/2.04/PatchPE.exe.

macOS

The following development libraries are required.

These libraries can be installed using Homebrew with the following command:

brew install libunistring

However, installing libmicrohttpd from GNU source is recommended. You can download the library source from ftpmirror.gnu.org/libmicrohttpd/libmicrohttpd-latest.tar.gz and compile it with the following commands.

tar -xzf libmicrohttpd-latest.tar.gz
cd libmicrohttpd*
LIBMICROHTTPD_PATH=~/libmicrohttpd # This is where the compiled library and header files are installed. Change the path as neccessary
mkdir -p "$LIBMICROHTTPD_PATH"
./configure --without-gnutls --prefix="$LIBMICROHTTPD_PATH"
make -j4
make install # If you selected a system path above for LIBMICROHTTPD_PATH, this command may need sudo

Then, set the CPATH and LIBRARY_PATH environment variables, respectively, to the include and link-library paths in the directory where libmicrohttpd is installed (value of LIBMICROHTTPD_PATH in above commands). Delete the dylib file in the libmicrohttpd installation if you want to static link libmicrohttpd.

Compiling

Open a terminal / command prompt / Powershell in the project directory

This can be done using the GUI or the cd command.
Run the following command to make the executable file
```
make
```
This will generate the executable named clip-share-client (or clip-share-client.exe on Windows).

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github		.github
docker		docker
helper_tools		helper_tools
src		src
tests		tests
.clang-format		.clang-format
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
.yamllint		.yamllint
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md

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ClipShare - Desktop

Share Clipboard and Files. Copy on one device. Paste on another device.

🚀 Quick-start

Download

Server

Client

Table of Contents

How to Use

GUI client

CLI client

Installation

Online installers

Standalone installers

Homebrew (for macOS)

apt, dnf, or yum (for Ubuntu or Fedora-based Linux)

Create SSL/TLS certificates and key files

Auto-send options

Configuration

Build from Source

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ClipShare - Desktop

Share Clipboard and Files. Copy on one device. Paste on another device.

🚀 Quick-start

Download

Server

Client

Table of Contents

How to Use

GUI client

CLI client

Installation

Online installers

Standalone installers

Homebrew (for macOS)

apt, dnf, or yum (for Ubuntu or Fedora-based Linux)

Create SSL/TLS certificates and key files

Auto-send options

Configuration

Build from Source

Build tools

Dependencies

Compiling

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