macOS command-line tools you might not know about

`pbcopy` and `pbpaste` are one of my most-loved in the list.

Dealing with some minified json, switching to iTerm, doing `pbpaste | json_pp | pbcopy` and having a clean output is _so_ nice.

It's cool to use pbcopy and pbpaste with your phone! Copy some text on the phone, and you can pbpaste it onto the Mac command line. So cool.

It creeps me out when the clipboard is unexpectedly shared between my phone and computer. And since the feature seems to turn on randomly but not reliably when I want it to, I’d rather it just didn’t exist.

I have a clipboard manager application called "Paste" (creative i know). Its an awesome app for a million reasons. But one thing I like is that it allows me to see and hear when my iphone copy worked.

So I have it enabled so there is a sound when something goes into the clipboard. Even on my mac, I have come to rely on that audio feedback. But it has the added benefit that when I am using my phone in front of my computer and I copy something on my phone, I immediate (and it is impressively fast... maybe a 200ms delay), I hear the chime that something was added to my clipboard on my mac. So it gives you that good feedback that a copy "worked".

You can also shift+cmd+V to see the clipboard history, which is another complimentary tool with universal clipboard because if a paste isn't working as expected you can see if the universal copy never "took" (as you mentioned it is semi-unreliable), or if it just got overridden. You can then use the navigator to paste the older item.

I wonder if it's this one: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/paste-clipboard-manager/id9678...

I've noticed that more and more apps on both macOS and iOS sniff the clipboard contents and randomly clobber it. I usually notice it in apps like Sourcetree, where I'll click something or do a certain action and suddenly I can't paste anymore. I even get a feel for it, like my mind detects the pattern that empties the clipboard so I sense when I can no longer paste, but I can't figure out concrete repeatable steps to make it happen. On iOS it's more random, and I feel like it's probably Facebook doing it, or maybe websites in Safari. I just assume that everything is spying on my clipboard contents now, hoping to log secrets/passwords and PII to sell to scammers.

I have to say, this is one of the more disappointing developments from Apple, that they certainly must know by now about these clipboard shenanigans, but have done nothing to stop them. They need to implement permissions that deny all apps the ability to get/set the clipboard by default, and have an option to ask the user whether so-and-so app can access the clipboard (outside of normal copy/paste), every time with the option to allow always. And all clipboard access attempts should probably get logged somewhere.