Improve xclip compatibility for terminal emulators

[moheladwy]

Overview

This PR resolves issue #22 by improving xclip compatibility for terminal emulators on X11 systems. The fix addresses the two main clipboard compatibility issues identified in the issue:

1. Removed strict type checking: Removed the -t text/plain flag from xclip commands that was causing compatibility issues with various terminal emulators
2. Added Primary selection support: Extended clipboard functionality to support both Clipboard (Ctrl+V) and Primary (middle-click) selections

Problem Statement

Previously, OCR4Linux only copied extracted text to the Clipboard selection, which caused pasting to fail in many terminal emulators. Additionally, some terminals were picky about the MIME type targets provided by xclip, specifically the -t text/plain flag.

Solution

Modified the copy_to_x11_clipboard() function in OCR4Linux.sh to:

• Copy to both Clipboard selection (Ctrl+V paste)
• Copy to Primary selection (middle-click paste)
• Remove the strict MIME type flag for better terminal compatibility

Changes Made

File: OCR4Linux.sh

# Before:
xclip -selection clipboard -t text/plain -i "$OCR4Linux_HOME/$TEXT_OUTPUT_FILE_NAME"

# After:
xclip -selection clipboard -i "$OCR4Linux_HOME/$TEXT_OUTPUT_FILE_NAME"
xclip -selection primary   -i "$OCR4Linux_HOME/$TEXT_OUTPUT_FILE_NAME"

File: OCR4Linux.py

• Version bumped to 1.4.0

Testing

The fix ensures that:

• ✅ Text can be pasted into terminal emulators using middle-click (Primary selection)
• ✅ Text can be pasted into terminal emulators using Ctrl+V (Clipboard selection)
• ✅ Compatibility improved across different terminal emulators
• ✅ Extracted text can still be pasted into browsers and other applications

Benefits

• Better terminal compatibility: Users can now paste OCR-extracted text into various terminal emulators
• Support for middle-click paste: Aligns with standard Linux X11 clipboard behavior
• Power user friendly: Addresses the needs of power users who rely on terminal workflows

Related Issue

Closes #22

Version Update

• Version bumped from 1.3.0 to 1.4.0 to reflect the enhancement

[coderabbitai]

Caution

Review failed

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📝 Walkthrough

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Added enhanced logging throughout the application for better visibility into operations.
  • Improved clipboard handling to copy to both clipboard and primary selections.

• Improvements

  • Version bumped to 1.4.0 across all components.
  • Enhanced setup process with user-facing status messages and configuration directory creation.
  • Better progress feedback during installation and setup workflows.

_{✏️ Tip: You can customize this high-level summary in your review settings.}

Walkthrough

Version bump to 1.4.0 with enhanced logging for screenshot and clipboard operations in the main script, extended X11 clipboard handling to support both clipboard and primary selections via a new orchestrator function, and added user-facing status messages throughout the setup flow.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Version updates OCR4Linux.py, OCR4Linux.sh, setup.sh	Bumped version string from 1.3.0 to 1.4.0 across all major components
Clipboard and logging enhancements OCR4Linux.sh	Introduced new run_copy_to_clipboard() orchestrator function; added per-step logging for screenshot capture (Wayland/X11), clipboard operations (Wayland/X11); extended X11 clipboard to copy to both clipboard and primary selections
Setup flow improvements setup.sh	Added user-facing status messages and progress indicators in check_yay() and install_requirements(); added startup/completion banners and configuration setup steps for creating OCR4Linux config directory
Build configuration .gitignore	Added ignore rule for VS Code AI instructions file (.github/instructions/codacy.instructions.md)

Sequence Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant Script as OCR4Linux.sh
    participant SessionCheck as Session Detector
    participant Wayland as Wayland Clipboard<br/>(wl-copy)
    participant X11 as X11 Clipboard<br/>(xclip)
    participant FileSystem as File System
    
    User->>Script: Trigger OCR operation
    Script->>Script: Capture screenshot & run OCR
    Script->>Script: Log: "Copying text to clipboard"
    Script->>SessionCheck: Determine session type
    
    alt Wayland Session
        SessionCheck-->>Script: Wayland detected
        Script->>Wayland: wl-copy < text_file
        Script->>Script: Log: "Text copied to Wayland clipboard"
    else X11 Session
        SessionCheck-->>Script: X11 detected
        Script->>X11: xclip -selection clipboard
        Script->>Script: Log: "Copied to X11 clipboard"
        Script->>X11: xclip -selection primary
        Script->>Script: Log: "Copied to X11 primary selection"
    end
    
    Script->>FileSystem: Remove temporary text file
    Script->>Script: Log: "Cleanup complete"
    Script-->>User: Operation finished

Loading

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Possibly related issues

• [Suggestion]: Improving xclip compatibility for Terminal emulators #22: The PR implements the suggested improvement for X11 clipboard compatibility by extending copy_to_x11_clipboard() to copy to both clipboard and primary selections, directly addressing the terminal emulator compatibility issue raised in the issue.

Poem

🐰 With whiskers twitching in delight,
Clipboards now paste left and right!
Primary, clipboard, both now blessed,
Logs trace every hop and test. ✨

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title 'Improve xclip compatibility for terminal emulators' directly matches the main objective of the changeset: enhancing clipboard functionality for terminal compatibility on X11.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description clearly explains the changes addressing issue #22, detailing the removal of the MIME type flag and addition of primary selection support, with code examples and testing confirmation.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The pull request successfully addresses all coding requirements from issue #22: removes the -t text/plain flag from xclip commands and adds support for both Clipboard and Primary selections by calling xclip twice.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Additional changes include version bumps (1.3.0 to 1.4.0), extensive logging additions, and setup.sh enhancements for user feedback, which are reasonable supporting changes but not strictly required by issue #22.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	Docstring coverage is 100.00% which is sufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.

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✨ Finishing touches

• 📝 Generate docstrings

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment
• Commit unit tests in branch enhance/xclip-compatibility-terminals

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR improves xclip compatibility for terminal emulators on X11 systems by removing the strict MIME type flag and adding support for the Primary selection (middle-click paste) in addition to the Clipboard selection (Ctrl+V paste). The changes also include enhanced logging throughout the script and version updates across all relevant files.

Changes:

• Removed -t text/plain flag from xclip commands to improve terminal emulator compatibility
• Added Primary selection support for X11 clipboard operations (middle-click paste)
• Enhanced logging messages in setup.sh and OCR4Linux.sh for better user feedback
• Updated version from 1.3.0 to 1.4.0 across all three main files

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
OCR4Linux.sh	Core fix: Modified copy_to_x11_clipboard() to remove MIME type flag and add Primary selection support; added logging statements throughout
OCR4Linux.py	Version update to 1.4.0
setup.sh	Version update to 1.4.0 and added informative echo statements for better user experience during setup
.gitignore	Added entry to ignore VS Code AI rules file

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[moheladwy]

Hi @0xrego

this pr closes your issue successfully, I've tried the fix on Plasma (X11) with Kitty terminal and it's working great :)

let me know if you need anything else