How can I copy the output from a remote command into the local clipboard?

Question

I use iTerm2 as my terminal client in Mac OS X. On the local system I can use pbcopy and pbpaste to transfer data between the system clipboard and the terminal, but of course this doesn't work when you're ssh'ed to another machine.

Is there some way which I can take the result of a command and copy it to the clipboard automatically? Perhaps an applescript to grab the text on the iTerm windows, then get the next to last line?

For instance, if I wanted to copy the current working directory:

I run pwd, then use the mouse to select the text, and then press command + c.

Is there any better / faster / automatic way of doing this? I'm not looking for a bulletproof solution that would work for every command (eg: might not work when there is a huge scrollback) - I'm just looking for something to make this task that I do quite often a little less tedious.

Update

I'm looking into using screen to do this, but I'm still not sure if it is possible.

Answer 1

Well, I just tried this and it works:

echo "foo" | tee | ssh [e-mail] pbcopy

Notes:

• I'm using echo "foo" as a stand-in for the command whose output you want to copy to your ssh client machine.
• I'm using tee so you can see it right in your terminal window instead of having it all swallowed up by the ssh command.
• By giving ssh a command to run, it will send the stdin that ssh received to that command on that other host, and then immediately return.

You could probably alias it to something simpler to type. And be sure to use ssh keys instead of password-based authentication to save yourself having to retype your password. Update: And you can use SSH Agent Forwarding so you don't have to put credentials to access your local machine on the remote box.

(NB: I'm not sure how well pbcopy/pbpaste work when you only have an ssh/tty/shell session and no Mac OS X GUI context. I think the pasteboard is a NeXTStep/Cocoa/Aqua/GUI concept, not necessarily something that exits at the Unix layer without the GUI layer.)

When I first came up with this it seemed hackish, but the more I play around with it the more I like it.

Answer 2

Simplistic solution

On your ssh remote.host create /usr/local/bin/spbcopy:

#!/bin/bash
cat >$HOME/.pastebin

On you OSX create /usr/local/bin/spbpaste:

#!/bin/bash
ssh $* 'cat .pastebin; >$_'

Copy data to clipboard using:

[e-mail]$ echo "foo" | spbcopy

And paste data from clipboard using:

osx$ spbpaste [e-mail]

You can probably use named pipe on remote host and make the data copied to local clipboard automatically by running some command in background, but it makes it just more complex to setup.