Clipboard (xsel), recycle, and open commands for WSL written in Rust. I created this after getting fed up with PowerShell-based solutions being slow and janky (e.g. not handling Unicode properly). Human-coded, as with all of my work.
The programs come with both Linux and Windows binaries: the former is used to translate paths / check pipes before passing things along to the exe to call the relevant winapis. The exe's aren't WSL-specific and can be used by themselves e.g. in batch scripts if needed.
Important
Exe's in the Linux filesystem can sometimes be 10x slower to execute than if they were on the Windows filesystem. I've found this to be especially pronounced on Windows 11. To make things easy, I've created an installer that copies the binaries to Program Files and adds them to your PATH.
Download Installer (recommended)
or download zip, or compile from source:
- Install Rust (in WSL, not Windows)
- Install Inno Setup 6 (optional)
- Set up for cross-compilation:
- Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install mingw-w64 && rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu - Arch:
sudo pacman -Syu mingw-w64 && rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
- Ubuntu:
- Run
make
Drop-in replacement for the common xsel program used to copy/paste in Linux. Since many programs and clipboard libraries look for xsel, having this in PATH will allow those that aren't WSL-aware to copy to the Windows clipboard.
Usage: xsel [options]
By default the clipboard is output if both standard input and standard output
are terminals (ttys). Otherwise, the clipboard is output if standard output is
not a terminal (tty), and the clipboard is set from standard input if standard
input is not a terminal (tty). If any input or output options are given then the
program behaves only in the requested mode.
If both input and output is required then the previous clipboard is output
before being replaced by the contents of standard input.
Input options
-a, --append Append standard input to the clipboard
-f, --follow <Not supported>
-z, --zeroflush <Not supported>
-i, --input Read standard input into the clipboard
Output options
-o, --output Write the clipboard to standard output
--keep-crlf <Windows-only addition> By default, CRLF is replaced
with LF when pasting. Pass this option to disable.
Action options
-c, --clear Clear the clipboard
-d, --delete <Not supported>
Selection options
-p, --primary PRIMARY and SECONDARY selections have no equivalent
-s, --secondary on Windows, but since some Linux clipboard managers
-b, --clipboard sync the selection and clipboard buffers, we pretend
that's the case and disregard the chosen selection.
-k, --keep <No-op>
-x, --exchange <No-op>
X options
--display <Not supported>
-m, --name <Not supported>
-t, --selectionTimeout <Not supported>
Miscellaneous options
--trim Remove newline from end of input / output
-l, --logfile <Not supported>
-n, --nodetach <Ignored>
-h, --help Display this help and exit
-v, --verbose <Ignored>
--version Output version information and exit
See remarks in source.
Usage: recycle [OPTIONS] <PATHS>...
Sends the given files/directories to the Recycle Bin.
The default behavior (without --rm) is to let the shell display the normal
progress and confirmation dialogs and add to Explorer's undo history, the same
as if the user had deleted the files in Explorer. This is due to Windows API
limitations: it is not possible to recycle files without any dialogs without
also risking the shell permanently deleting files. Consequently, this command
MUST NOT be used without --rm in scripts where the user is not expecting it.
Arguments:
<PATHS>...
Files/directories to recycle, relative to the current directory. Linux
paths are automatically converted to Windows paths.
Options:
-f, --force
Ignore nonexistent files
--rm
Hide all dialogs and let the shell permanently delete anything it
can't recycle. Warnings:
• This may result in files that could have been recycled being nuked
instead; see comment in `recycle_bin.rs` for details.
• Directories will be deleted recursively.
• Files in the WSL filesystem that require sudo cannot be deleted with
`recycle` (Explorer won't do it).
-v, --verbose
Show recycle progress in the terminal
-h, --help
Print help (see a summary with '-h')
-V, --version
Print version
Simple wrapper for ShellExecuteExW.
Important
On Ubuntu/Debian, the alternatives system may be managing symlinks for /usr/bin/open and two commands used for opening links in the default browser, all of which can be pointed at wsl-tools instead:
for cmd in open www-browser x-www-browser; do
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/$cmd $cmd '/mnt/c/Program Files/wsl-tools/open' 999
doneTip
Running open -e image.png is equivalent to right-clicking on image.png and selecting Edit. By default this opens Paint; you can change it to your preferred image editor using Winaero Tweaker or by modifying this key in regedit: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\shell\edit\command
Usage: open [OPTIONS] <PATHS>...
Opens the given files or URLs in their default programs (directories open in
Explorer).
For details regarding --verb, see:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/launch#object-verbs
Arguments:
<PATHS>... Files, directories, and/or URLs to open. Linux paths are
automatically converted to Windows paths.
Options:
-e, --edit Alias for --verb edit
--runas Alias for --verb runas
--verb <VERB> Verb to execute
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
Copyright © Max Kagamine
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0