René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Set-Clipboard -Remote with OSC52","articleBody":"### Summary of the new feature / enhancement\n\n`Set-Clipboard` does not really work over SSH, as it always sets the clipboard of the target machine, not the host. This means that if you SSH e.g. from your PC to a server, then `Set-Clipboard` will set the server's clipboard, not your PCs, so you cannot paste it anywhere.\r\n\r\nThis can be resolved by using ANSI escape sequence (same mechanism as for setting colors) [OSC52](https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html#h3-Operating-System-Commands:~:text=Ps%20%3D%205%202%20%20%E2%87%92%C2%A0%20Manipulate%20Selection%20Data), which sets the clipboard of the host machine, which in our example is the PC, so you can paste it anywhere. This sequence is supported by most terminals, including [Microsoft Terminal](https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/2946).\r\n\r\nExample:\r\n```pwsh\r\nfunction Set-RemoteClipboard($text) {\r\n    Write-Host \"`e]52;;$([System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($text)))`a\"\r\n}\r\n# Copy \"original\" into a clipboard from anywhere\r\n\u003e Set-Clipboard 'changed'\r\n# Press Ctrl+Shift+V to see clipboard still \"original\"\r\n\u003e Set-RemoteClipboard 'changed'\r\n# Press Ctrl+Shift+V to see clipboard now \"changed\"\r\n```\r\n\r\nOSC also has similar `Get-Clipboard -Remote` sequence, but no terminal implements it as it is rightly considered a security and privacy risk, and you ca simply \"get\" the host clipboard with Ctrl+Shift+V.\r\n\r\nOpens:\r\n1. Should we autodetect when to use the OSC52 instead of xclip or other OS target-implementation? E.g. SSH can be detected by presence of environment variables `$env:SSH_CLIENT` and `$env:SSH_TTY`. I would say no, as it could be potentially breaking behavior in case of false positives on terminals which don't support the OSC. If user wants such behavior, they can add `$PSDefaultParameters['Set-Clipboard:Remote'] = $env:SSH_CLIENT -or $env:SSH_TTY` to their `$PROFILE`.\r\n2. Some terminal multiplexers like screen and tmux may require wrapping OSC52 into a different escape, as can be seen in the [vim plugin implementation](https://github.com/ojroques/vim-oscyank/blob/main/plugin/oscyank.vim). Should we detect and handle those cases? tmux can be forced to work with default escape by setting `set -s set-clipboard on`. I would say keep it simple for now, then maybe add `-RemoteMethod = auto | osc52 | tmux | screen` in separate issue if required.\n\n### Proposed technical implementation details (optional)\n\nSee example for the escape sequence format.","author":{"url":"https://github.com/dkaszews","@type":"Person","name":"dkaszews"},"datePublished":"2022-09-17T10:23:20.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":8},"url":"https://github.com/18116/PowerShell/issues/18116"}