Clipmenu: How to Forget About Clipboard Problems on Linux

Ever been in a situation where you need to paste text you copied half an hour ago, but the clipboard has already been overwritten? For developers, system administrators, and anyone who works extensively with text, this is a daily headache. Today I'll tell you about a simple solution — the clipmenu utility, which makes working with clipboard history on Linux convenient and fast.

What is Clipmenu?

Clipmenu is a minimalist clipboard manager that works in conjunction with dmenu, rofi, or other compatible launchers. It's not a monstrous application packed with unnecessary features, but rather a tool that solves a specific problem: it gives you access to your entire clipboard history through a convenient interface.

The project is written in C, follows the suckless philosophy (simple, efficient, modular utilities), and integrates seamlessly into any Linux environment.

5 Reasons to Try Clipmenu

1. Instant access to history — stores up to 1,000 recent copies (configurable)
2. Flexible configuration — you can exclude applications (e.g., password managers) from tracking
3. Light on system resources — works via XFixes without constant polling
4. Integration with favorite launchers — dmenu (default), rofi, fzf
5. Full control — you can temporarily disable clipboard monitoring or delete individual entries

How Does It Work?

The system consists of two main components:

• clipmenud — a daemon that runs in the background tracking clipboard changes
• clipmenu — an interface for selecting and pasting saved data

After installing and starting the daemon (with systemd support available), you get automatic saving of everything you copy. To paste, simply invoke clipmenu (it's convenient to bind it to a hotkey) and select the desired fragment from the list.

Practical Applications

Here are a few scenarios where clipmenu really saves time:

• Development — quick switching between different code snippets
• Administration — re-entering long commands from history
• Documentation writing — working with multiple quotes or links
• Research — collecting and organizing information from various sources

# Пример вызова с кастомными настройками dmenu
clipmenu -i -fn Terminus:size=8 -nb '#002b36' -nf '#839496' -sb '#073642' -sf '#93a1a1'

Installation and Setup

Pre-built packages are available for most distributions:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S clipmenu

# Nix/NixOS
nix-env -iA nixos.clipmenu

For other systems, you can build from source (the project is small, dependencies are minimal). After installation, I recommend:

1. Add clipmenud to autostart (via systemd or .xinitrc)
2. Assign a convenient hotkey for invoking clipmenu
3. Configure exclusions for sensitive applications

Clipmenu is one of those tools that after a week of use feels absolutely essential. It doesn't try to be a "Swiss Army knife" — it simply and elegantly solves one problem: it gives you control over your clipboard.

I especially recommend it for:

• Fans of minimalist suckless utilities
• Those who work in the terminal and value speed
• Anyone tired of losing copied information

Give it a try — you might be surprised how you lived without this tool.