On Thu, 9 Mar 2017 00:10:33 -0800, ToddAndMargo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

<snip>
>> there are also more formal references like:
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_selection
>> https://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib/utilities/using-cut-buffers.html
>> https://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib/window-information/selection.html
>>
>> Sorry I pointed you in the wrong direction to start with.
>>
>
>Hi Andrew,
>
>https://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib/utilities/using-cut-buffers.html
>is the ctrl-c/v/x clipboard.
>
>But, looking at
>    https://tronche.com/gui/x/xlib/window-information/selection.html
>
>He talks a lot about changing the ownership.  Is the the mouse over and
>middle click clipboard (primary)?  I may still have the wrong clipboard.
>Am I missing something?

Yes, mouse over and middle click is primary.  xclip will let you transfer text between
primary and clipboard.

For instance, 
xclip -o -sel clip |xclip -sel p
will put the clipboard selection into the primary, from which you can paste it with
the middle button, and
xclip -o -sel p |xclip -sel clip
will put the selection that you have highlighted with the mouse into the clipboard,
from which you can ctrl-v it into an openoffice document or whatever.

Obviously, you want to give these incantations names or bind them to keys if you
intend to use them a lot.

Hope that's useful.

Stephen Isard