Piknik – Copy and paste anything over the network | Hacker News Reader

Piknik – Copy and paste anything over the network

github.com

107 pointsenkiv236 comments

Better not have KeePass open while this is open. Accidental leaks are just too risky that way.

I wrote a similar piece of software a few years ago. I solved that by having a config flag for each clipboard agent to disable broadcasting of their clipboard changes and only listening for changes. Then I simply activated that on the box that holds keys/passwords etc.

It doesn’t interact with the system clipboard.

Unless I'm missing a subtlety here, the docs indicate it does. https://keepass.info/features.html#lnkclipboard (at least in Windows)

I think sneak means Piknik doesn't.

Not the same thing at all, but the title of the post somehow reminded me of the synergy app for mouse and keyboard sharing.

Google 'synergy app'.

Update: Noticed just after commenting, that user falcolas had also mentioned Synergy here in this thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16177216

Others too, just noticed.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14649727

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16216156

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I've been looking for something like this for ages. I use QubesOS, and copy + paste between HVM(Windows) and paravirtual domains(Linux) just did not work with Windows 10. I previously used a little webserver on a separate VM on my virtual network where I had to go with a browser to copy and paste stuff in a shared chat window. And files were even worse.

That solution was not as secure as I'd like and necessitates network connectivity between machine where I want to share data. Piknik is still not secure in that sense, but it is much more seamless and can be installed as a drop-in replacement since the environment is so similar to my current solution!

Have you tried Synergy? Mostly just works, from my experience.

Not to mention, with the Linux subshell, you have the potential to automate a SSH tunnel or tar | nc.

Just some thoughts about non-3rd party solutions.

Same, but different: https://github.com/warner/magic-wormhole

Great to copy from any host to another, just by sharing a short secret.

Seconded, and I love magic wormhole. This article's title would be more descriptive as "Network-based shared clipboard"

I just wish it would support resume

On iOS/MacOS you can just use the Apple Notes app to share text betweenn your phone and mac, it's updated in Real-time (instantaneous!)

It's nice that this is open-source, but if it involves an intermediate server anyway, PushBullet also does a great job, and on various platforms: https://www.pushbullet.com/ (No affiliation)

Can you host your own PushBullet server?

No you cannot.

Synergy does the same thing but is FOSS and also allows cursor sharing.

I used to love https://symless.com/synergy which includes this feature (if I recall correctly) Pretty useful at times.

If you just need to quickly share a file from command line, you can use https://transfer.sh, I find it quite useful sometimes.

mobile app would be great! https://github.com/jedisct1/piknik/issues/3

"Installation" - Game over.

Relevant: https://xkcd.com/949

Misread that for a moment as "just drone it over to your house" and pictured a DJI Mavic with a thumb drive taped to it.

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a drone covered in micro SD cards hurtling across the city."

Relevant: https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/

You don't generally use a clipboard to share files with other people, you use it to share files between your desktop applications, and in this case between your computers. I have been emailing myself files, because synergy doesn't copy files and airdropping with an old mac is annoying.

I love such generalized titles. My mathematically modified brain automatically searches for an example when you cannot copy something, then the whole statement is not true. My dog agrees, he cannot be copied over the network :)

I didn't realize from the title that this was a CLI network clipboard client/server, and another commenter helpfully pointed out it operates independently of the system clipboard.

Pedantically, the state of any material object is just information and should be transferable over a network?

No.."Chaos theory has taught us" that it would take an infinite amount of information to precisely-enough specify 'state'.

Doesn't this depend on the universe being not entirely discrete? If the universe is entirely discrete, then it should be possible to represent the exact state of it?

In any case, I don't think it follows that an infinite amount of information is necessary to describe e.g. a dog to the extent to which it could be transferred and there being no functional difference to the copy, even though the exact state is not represented.

Very useful!

Also nice that I see this posted soon after CloudFlare Access[0] was launched; which can add good security for Piknik's use case.

[0] https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-cloudflare-access/

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