Question

How can I, using Python (2.7) get the contents of the Mac clipboard. Is there a better way than making a wrapper around pbpaste?

Thanks!

Answer 1

PyObjC is the way to go:

#!/usr/bin/python

from AppKit import NSPasteboard, NSStringPboardType

pb = NSPasteboard.generalPasteboard()
pbstring = pb.stringForType_(NSStringPboardType)
print u"Pastboard string: %s".encode("utf-8") % repr(pbstring)

This only supports text and will return None otherwise. You can extend it to support other data types as well, see NSPastboard Class Reference.