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I have deleted something but I had copied before. Ctrl+v shows only the last copied text. I tried to install diodon and cliplt. As I understand they start to archive some history of the clipboard. But how can I go to some history of the clipboard within Ubuntu 14.04? Leaving my PC turned on while waiting for answers.

Chindraba
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Martin
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  • What type of content is it? text, image, file, other. – ctrl-alt-delor Jul 30 '14 at 11:53
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    actually X has two clipboards, on is filled with ctrl+c (or x) and pasted with ctrl+v. the "secondary" clipboard is filled by selecting text and pasted with the middle mouse button. so sometimes you are lucky and can retrieve text with the middle mouse button. – weberik Jul 30 '14 at 12:23

2 Answers2

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If you don't have a clipboard manager then it's gone forever.

If you are using KDE then you are in luck because it has all the clipboard history under the scissors icon in the tray

enter image description here

To install one:

sudo apt-get install parcellite

Parcellite Install Parcellite

It runs in the Notification Area and offers many options for managing both Primary Selection and standard freedesktop.org Clipboard.

Tray Icon

Preferences

Community
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Ruslan Gerasimov
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    If you don't have a clipboard manager then it's gone forever. – Martin Jul 30 '14 at 12:41
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    For ubuntu 14 parcellite was forked to `clipit` (`sudo apt-get install clipit`). – maklemenz Sep 09 '15 at 09:39
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    @maklemenz sure it was "forked to clipit"? `clipit` is already present in 12.04, and `parcellite` is still there in 16.04. Any reference? – Izzy Nov 19 '16 at 18:57
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    PS: According to [parcellite homepage](http://parcellite.sourceforge.net/), it's still a project on its own with releases after 14.10 came out ;) // According to the [changelog](https://web.archive.org/web/20130908015319/http://clipit.rspwn.com/changelog/), the fork to Clipit must have happened in 2010 or earlier. Last Cliptit release was 2013, their website is no longer available even. Just sayin ;) Decent alternative: `sudo apt-get install qlipper` (cross platform, light-weight). – Izzy Nov 19 '16 at 19:12
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    @Izzy parcellite wasn't available on my system. I used google to find an alternative and read a comment or article or something about the fork. Should have added the reference back then. Thanks for clearing that up. – maklemenz Nov 20 '16 at 11:09
  • "gone forever" -- would it be possible, for example, to attach a debugger to some program (like [xorg](https://askubuntu.com/questions/729360/where-are-the-contents-of-the-clipboard-stored)?) and retrieve it from the raw memory, if the memory location was not erased when it changed? – user1151080 Dec 19 '20 at 18:58
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CopyQ

As the previous answer states: If you don't have a clipboard manager then it's gone forever, a good alternative to Parcellite is CopyQ, an advanced multiplatform clipboard manager with editing and scripting features.

It is included in Ubuntu 18 bionic. For older other releases execute the following in a terminal (Alt + Ctrl + T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hluk/copyq
sudo apt update
sudo apt install copyq

Detailed info: https://hluk.github.io/CopyQ/

Gogowitsch
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Damodar Das
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  • This doesn't answer the question, but instead looks like an advertisement for a program. How does this help the OP...especially given the likelihood he doesn't have a clipboard manager installed? – I say Reinstate Monica Sep 23 '18 at 00:32
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    I don't work for CopyQ, I simply proposed an alternative to Parcellite, I use CopyQ on a daily basis several years ago and it saved me a lot of times of losing important information. – Damodar Das Sep 29 '18 at 00:12
  • First, let me welcome you to Super User. On this site anything in the answer box must answer the original question. In this case it doesn't appear your answer does so. Please take a few minutes to take the [tour] and learn more about how this site works. Thanks! – I say Reinstate Monica Sep 29 '18 at 00:15
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    @TwistyImpersonator so it's fine for an answer to say "If you don't have a clipboard manager, it's gone forever. But you can install clipboard manager A by doing X", but it's not fine for an answer to say "If you don't have a clipboard manager, it's gone forever. But you can install clipboard manager B by doing Y"?? The information content of the answers is practically identical! – Notso Oct 05 '18 at 08:26