access system clipboard from command line

wanting to copy something from command line or maybe a file you can use xclip

eg. copy your public ssh key from id_rsa.pub to clipboard directly from command line:

cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | xclip -selection clipboard

or

cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub | xclip -selection c

source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/110347/command-line-clipboard-access

Tags: clipboard, xclip