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Document global clipboard for GUI protocol 1.8 #1434

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rapenne-s merged 1 commit into from
Jan 21, 2025
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Document global clipboard for GUI protocol 1.8 #1434

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3 changes: 2 additions & 1 deletion developer/system/gui.md
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Expand Up @@ -90,9 +90,10 @@ Clipboard sharing implementation
Certainly, it would be insecure to allow AppVM to read/write the clipboards of other AppVMs unconditionally.
Therefore, the following mechanism is used:

- there is a "qubes clipboard" in dom0 - its contents are stored in a regular file in dom0.
- there is a "qubes clipboard" in dom0 - its contents are stored in a regular file in dom0 as `/run/qubes/qubes-clipboard.bin`.
- if the user wants to copy local AppVM clipboard to qubes clipboard, she must focus on any window belonging to this AppVM, and press **Ctrl-Shift-C**. This combination is trapped by `qubes-guid`, and `CLIPBOARD_REQ` message is sent to AppVM. `qubes-gui` responds with `CLIPBOARD_DATA` message followed by clipboard contents.
- the user focuses on other AppVM window, presses **Ctrl-Shift-V**. This combination is trapped by `qubes-guid`, and `CLIPBOARD_DATA` message followed by qubes clipboard contents is sent to AppVM; `qubes-gui` copies data to the local clipboard, and then user can paste its contents to local applications normally.
- a supplementary JSON metadata file will be saved as `/run/qubes/qubes-clipboard.bin.metadata` on global clipboard copy or paste actions. Explanation of each field is available in `xside.h` header file of `qubes-guid` under `clipboard_metadata` structure. While the output from `qubes-guid` is fully JSON compatible, the `qubes-guid` parser is limited. It expects line breaks after each key-value pair and only one key-value pair per line. Opening and closing curly braces should be on their own lines. There should be no leading white-space.

This way, the user can quickly copy clipboards between AppVMs.
This action is fully controlled by the user, it cannot be triggered/forced by any AppVM.
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