mjhjmtu

I'd like to automatically clear the clipboard a few seconds after use.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

LOCKFILE=/tmp/.clearclip-lock
if [ -e $LOCKFILE ] && kill -0 `cat $LOCKFILE`; then
 exit 1
fi
trap "rm -f $LOCKFILE; exit" INT TERM EXIT
touch $LOCKFILE
echo $$ > $LOCKFILE

if xclip -o -selection clipboard 1>&2 2>/dev/null; then
 if watch -n 0.5 -t --chgexit xclip -o -selection clipboard @>/dev/null; then
 sleep 10
 xsel -bc
 fi
fi

rm -f $LOCKFILE

I've only just started playing around with this crude executable file called ~/mypath/clearclip which I'd like to trigger with a user local systemd timer. Anyway, the service throws an error Error opening terminal: unknown.

# ~/.local/share/systemd/user/clearclip.service
[Unit]
Description=clear the clipboard
ConditionFileIsExecutable=%h/_path/clearclip.sh

[Service]
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
ExecStart=%h/_path/clearclip.sh
Type=oneshot

My main question is:

Is there a tool to perform the same-but-non-interactive functionality of watch -g? What's your approach? Would you write the output to tmp files in a while loop to compare them, revert to expect, or something else?

Another question is: How would a dual-timer setup look like?

e.g. timer would check when the clipboard changes and trigger (or restart) another timer which clears the clipboard selection

Edit 25/07:

I've given up on using this script with a user timer this week. I was playing around with zpty to emulate a terminal to get rid of the opening terminal error but I ended up just putting a clearclip & in ~/.config/zsh/.zlogin.

#!/usr/bin/env zsh
# zmodload zsh/zpty

oclip=""
let count='-1'
let timeout=70

clipchanged() 
 if ! xclip -o -selection clipboard 2>/dev/null 1>&2; then
 count='-1'
 return 1
 fi
 clip="$(xclip -o -selection clipboard)"
 if [[ -z "$clip" ]] 

while true; do
 if (( count > 0 )); then
 ((count--))
 # echo -n "r33[K$count"
 fi
 if (( count == 0 )); then
 xsel -bc
 fi
 if clipchanged; then
 (( count=timeout ))
 fi
 sleep .5
done