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how do i copy a file to clipboard in python? [duplicate]

I'm trying to make a basic Windows application that builds a string out of user input and then adds it to the clipboard. How do I copy a string to the clipboard using Python?

Actually, pywin32 and ctypes seem to be an overkill for this simple task. tkinter is a cross-platform GUI framework, which ships with Python by default and has clipboard accessing methods along with other cool stuff.
If all you need is to put some text to system clipboard, this will do it:
from tkinter import Tk # in Python 2, use "Tkinter" instead
r = Tk()
r.withdraw()
r.clipboard_clear()
r.clipboard_append('i can has clipboardz?')
r.update() # now it stays on the clipboard after the window is closed
r.destroy()
And that's all, no need to mess around with platform-specific third-party libraries.
If you are using Python 2, replace tkinter with Tkinter.

I didn't have a solution, just a workaround.
Windows Vista onwards has an inbuilt command called clip that takes the output of a command from command line and puts it into the clipboard. For example, ipconfig | clip.
So I made a function with the os module which takes a string and adds it to the clipboard using the inbuilt Windows solution.
import os
def addToClipBoard(text):
command = 'echo ' + text.strip() + '| clip'
os.system(command)
# Example
addToClipBoard('penny lane')
# Penny Lane is now in your ears, eyes, and clipboard.
As previously noted in the comments however, one downside to this approach is that the echo command automatically adds a newline to the end of your text. To avoid this you can use a modified version of the command:
def addToClipBoard(text):
command = 'echo | set /p nul=' + text.strip() + '| clip'
os.system(command)
If you are using Windows XP it will work just following the steps in Copy and paste from Windows XP Pro's command prompt straight to the Clipboard.

You can use pyperclip - cross-platform clipboard module. Or Xerox - similar module, except requires the win32 Python module to work on Windows.

You can also use ctypes to tap into the Windows API and avoid the massive pywin32 package. This is what I use (excuse the poor style, but the idea is there):
import ctypes
# Get required functions, strcpy..
strcpy = ctypes.cdll.msvcrt.strcpy
ocb = ctypes.windll.user32.OpenClipboard # Basic clipboard functions
ecb = ctypes.windll.user32.EmptyClipboard
gcd = ctypes.windll.user32.GetClipboardData
scd = ctypes.windll.user32.SetClipboardData
ccb = ctypes.windll.user32.CloseClipboard
ga = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalAlloc # Global memory allocation
gl = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalLock # Global memory Locking
gul = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalUnlock
GMEM_DDESHARE = 0x2000
def Get():
ocb(None) # Open Clip, Default task
pcontents = gcd(1) # 1 means CF_TEXT.. too lazy to get the token thingy...
data = ctypes.c_char_p(pcontents).value
#gul(pcontents) ?
ccb()
return data
def Paste(data):
ocb(None) # Open Clip, Default task
ecb()
hCd = ga(GMEM_DDESHARE, len(bytes(data,"ascii")) + 1)
pchData = gl(hCd)
strcpy(ctypes.c_char_p(pchData), bytes(data, "ascii"))
gul(hCd)
scd(1, hCd)
ccb()

The simplest way is with pyperclip. Works in python 2 and 3.
To install this library, use:
pip install pyperclip
Example usage:
import pyperclip
pyperclip.copy("your string")
If you want to get the contents of the clipboard:
clipboard_content = pyperclip.paste()

You can use the excellent pandas, which has a built in clipboard support, but you need to pass through a DataFrame.
import pandas as pd
df=pd.DataFrame(['Text to copy'])
df.to_clipboard(index=False,header=False)

Here's the most easy and reliable way I found if you're okay depending on Pandas. However I don't think this is officially part of the Pandas API so it may break with future updates. It works as of 0.25.3
from pandas.io import clipboard
clipboard.copy("test")

For some reason I've never been able to get the Tk solution to work for me. kapace's solution is much more workable, but the formatting is contrary to my style and it doesn't work with Unicode. Here's a modified version.
import ctypes
from ctypes.wintypes import BOOL, HWND, HANDLE, HGLOBAL, UINT, LPVOID
from ctypes import c_size_t as SIZE_T
OpenClipboard = ctypes.windll.user32.OpenClipboard
OpenClipboard.argtypes = HWND,
OpenClipboard.restype = BOOL
EmptyClipboard = ctypes.windll.user32.EmptyClipboard
EmptyClipboard.restype = BOOL
GetClipboardData = ctypes.windll.user32.GetClipboardData
GetClipboardData.argtypes = UINT,
GetClipboardData.restype = HANDLE
SetClipboardData = ctypes.windll.user32.SetClipboardData
SetClipboardData.argtypes = UINT, HANDLE
SetClipboardData.restype = HANDLE
CloseClipboard = ctypes.windll.user32.CloseClipboard
CloseClipboard.restype = BOOL
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
GlobalAlloc = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalAlloc
GlobalAlloc.argtypes = UINT, SIZE_T
GlobalAlloc.restype = HGLOBAL
GlobalLock = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalLock
GlobalLock.argtypes = HGLOBAL,
GlobalLock.restype = LPVOID
GlobalUnlock = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalUnlock
GlobalUnlock.argtypes = HGLOBAL,
GlobalSize = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalSize
GlobalSize.argtypes = HGLOBAL,
GlobalSize.restype = SIZE_T
GMEM_MOVEABLE = 0x0002
GMEM_ZEROINIT = 0x0040
unicode_type = type(u'')
def get():
text = None
OpenClipboard(None)
handle = GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
pcontents = GlobalLock(handle)
size = GlobalSize(handle)
if pcontents and size:
raw_data = ctypes.create_string_buffer(size)
ctypes.memmove(raw_data, pcontents, size)
text = raw_data.raw.decode('utf-16le').rstrip(u'\0')
GlobalUnlock(handle)
CloseClipboard()
return text
def put(s):
if not isinstance(s, unicode_type):
s = s.decode('mbcs')
data = s.encode('utf-16le')
OpenClipboard(None)
EmptyClipboard()
handle = GlobalAlloc(GMEM_MOVEABLE | GMEM_ZEROINIT, len(data) + 2)
pcontents = GlobalLock(handle)
ctypes.memmove(pcontents, data, len(data))
GlobalUnlock(handle)
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, handle)
CloseClipboard()
paste = get
copy = put
The above has changed since this answer was first created, to better cope with extended Unicode characters and Python 3. It has been tested in both Python 2.7 and 3.5, and works even with emoji such as \U0001f601 (😁).
Update 2021-10-26: This was working great for me in Windows 7 and Python 3.8. Then I got a new computer with Windows 10 and Python 3.10, and it failed for me the same way as indicated in the comments. This post gave me the answer. The functions from ctypes don't have argument and return types properly specified, and the defaults don't work consistently with 64-bit values. I've modified the above code to include that missing information.

I've tried various solutions, but this is the simplest one that passes my test:
#coding=utf-8
import win32clipboard # http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/
def copy(text):
win32clipboard.OpenClipboard()
win32clipboard.EmptyClipboard()
win32clipboard.SetClipboardText(text, win32clipboard.CF_UNICODETEXT)
win32clipboard.CloseClipboard()
def paste():
win32clipboard.OpenClipboard()
data = win32clipboard.GetClipboardData(win32clipboard.CF_UNICODETEXT)
win32clipboard.CloseClipboard()
return data
if __name__ == "__main__":
text = "Testing\nthe “clip—board”: 📋"
try: text = text.decode('utf8') # Python 2 needs decode to make a Unicode string.
except AttributeError: pass
print("%r" % text.encode('utf8'))
copy(text)
data = paste()
print("%r" % data.encode('utf8'))
print("OK" if text == data else "FAIL")
try: print(data)
except UnicodeEncodeError as er:
print(er)
print(data.encode('utf8'))
Tested OK in Python 3.4 on Windows 8.1 and Python 2.7 on Windows 7. Also when reading Unicode data with Unix linefeeds copied from Windows. Copied data stays on the clipboard after Python exits: "Testing
the “clip—board”: 📋"
If you want no external dependencies, use this code (now part of cross-platform pyperclip - C:\Python34\Scripts\pip install --upgrade pyperclip):
def copy(text):
GMEM_DDESHARE = 0x2000
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
d = ctypes.windll # cdll expects 4 more bytes in user32.OpenClipboard(None)
try: # Python 2
if not isinstance(text, unicode):
text = text.decode('mbcs')
except NameError:
if not isinstance(text, str):
text = text.decode('mbcs')
d.user32.OpenClipboard(0)
d.user32.EmptyClipboard()
hCd = d.kernel32.GlobalAlloc(GMEM_DDESHARE, len(text.encode('utf-16-le')) + 2)
pchData = d.kernel32.GlobalLock(hCd)
ctypes.cdll.msvcrt.wcscpy(ctypes.c_wchar_p(pchData), text)
d.kernel32.GlobalUnlock(hCd)
d.user32.SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, hCd)
d.user32.CloseClipboard()
def paste():
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
d = ctypes.windll
d.user32.OpenClipboard(0)
handle = d.user32.GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
text = ctypes.c_wchar_p(handle).value
d.user32.CloseClipboard()
return text

Use pyperclip module
Install using pip pip install pyperclip.
https://pypi.org/project/pyperclip/
Copy text "Hello World!" to clip board
import pyperclip
pyperclip.copy('Hello World!')
You can use Ctrl+V anywhere to paste this somewhere.
Paste the copied text using python
pyperclip.paste() # This returns the copied text of type <class 'str'>

If you don't like the name you can use the derivative module clipboard.
Note: It's just a selective wrapper of pyperclip
After installing, import it:
import clipboard
Then you can copy like this:
clipboard.copy("This is copied")
You can also paste the copied text:
clipboard.paste()

Looks like you need to add win32clipboard to your site-packages. It's part of the pywin32 package

Not all of the answers worked for my various python configurations so this solution only uses the subprocess module. However, copy_keyword has to be pbcopy for Mac or clip for Windows:
import subprocess
subprocess.run('copy_keyword', universal_newlines=True, input='New Clipboard Value 😀')
Here's some more extensive code that automatically checks what the current operating system is:
import platform
import subprocess
copy_string = 'New Clipboard Value 😀'
# Check which operating system is running to get the correct copying keyword.
if platform.system() == 'Darwin':
copy_keyword = 'pbcopy'
elif platform.system() == 'Windows':
copy_keyword = 'clip'
subprocess.run(copy_keyword, universal_newlines=True, input=copy_string)

I think there is a much simpler solution to this.
name = input('What is your name? ')
print('Hello %s' % (name) )
Then run your program in the command line
python greeter.py | clip
This will pipe the output of your file to the clipboard

Widgets also have method named .clipboard_get() that returns the contents of the clipboard (unless some kind of error happens based on the type of data in the clipboard).
The clipboard_get() method is mentioned in this bug report:
http://bugs.python.org/issue14777
Strangely, this method was not mentioned in the common (but unofficial) online TkInter documentation sources that I usually refer to.

Solution with stdlib, without security issues
The following solution works in Linux without any additional library and without the risk of executing unwanted code in your shell.
import subprocess
def to_clipboard(text: str) -> None:
sp = subprocess.Popen(["xclip"], stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
sp.communicate(text.encode("utf8"))
Note that there multiple clipboard in Linux, the you use with the Middle Mouse (Primary) and yet another that you use pressing STRG+C,STRG+V.
You can define which clipboard is used by adding a selection parameter i.e. ["xclip", "-selection", "clipboard"].
See the man xclip for details.
If you using Windows, just replace xclip with clip.
This solution works without Tkinter, which not available some Python installations (i.e. the custom build I am currently using).

In addition to Mark Ransom's answer using ctypes:
This does not work for (all?) x64 systems since the handles seem to be truncated to int-size.
Explicitly defining args and return values helps to overcomes this problem.
import ctypes
import ctypes.wintypes as w
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
u32 = ctypes.WinDLL('user32')
k32 = ctypes.WinDLL('kernel32')
OpenClipboard = u32.OpenClipboard
OpenClipboard.argtypes = w.HWND,
OpenClipboard.restype = w.BOOL
GetClipboardData = u32.GetClipboardData
GetClipboardData.argtypes = w.UINT,
GetClipboardData.restype = w.HANDLE
EmptyClipboard = u32.EmptyClipboard
EmptyClipboard.restype = w.BOOL
SetClipboardData = u32.SetClipboardData
SetClipboardData.argtypes = w.UINT, w.HANDLE,
SetClipboardData.restype = w.HANDLE
CloseClipboard = u32.CloseClipboard
CloseClipboard.argtypes = None
CloseClipboard.restype = w.BOOL
GHND = 0x0042
GlobalAlloc = k32.GlobalAlloc
GlobalAlloc.argtypes = w.UINT, w.ctypes.c_size_t,
GlobalAlloc.restype = w.HGLOBAL
GlobalLock = k32.GlobalLock
GlobalLock.argtypes = w.HGLOBAL,
GlobalLock.restype = w.LPVOID
GlobalUnlock = k32.GlobalUnlock
GlobalUnlock.argtypes = w.HGLOBAL,
GlobalUnlock.restype = w.BOOL
GlobalSize = k32.GlobalSize
GlobalSize.argtypes = w.HGLOBAL,
GlobalSize.restype = w.ctypes.c_size_t
unicode_type = type(u'')
def get():
text = None
OpenClipboard(None)
handle = GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
pcontents = GlobalLock(handle)
size = GlobalSize(handle)
if pcontents and size:
raw_data = ctypes.create_string_buffer(size)
ctypes.memmove(raw_data, pcontents, size)
text = raw_data.raw.decode('utf-16le').rstrip(u'\0')
GlobalUnlock(handle)
CloseClipboard()
return text
def put(s):
if not isinstance(s, unicode_type):
s = s.decode('mbcs')
data = s.encode('utf-16le')
OpenClipboard(None)
EmptyClipboard()
handle = GlobalAlloc(GHND, len(data) + 2)
pcontents = GlobalLock(handle)
ctypes.memmove(pcontents, data, len(data))
GlobalUnlock(handle)
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, handle)
CloseClipboard()
#Test run
paste = get
copy = put
copy("Hello World!")
print(paste())

also you can use > clipboard
import clipboard
def copy(txt):
clipboard.copy(txt)
copy("your txt")

If (and only if) the application already uses Qt, you can use this (with the advantage of no additional third party dependency)
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication
clipboard = QApplication.clipboard()
# get text (if there's text inside instead of e.g. file)
clipboard.text()
# set text
clipboard.setText(s)
This requires a Qt application object to be already constructed, so it should not be used unless the application already uses Qt.
Besides, as usual, in X systems (and maybe other systems too), the content only persist until the application exists unless you use something like parcellite or xclipboard.
Documentation:
QGuiApplication Class | Qt GUI 5.15.6
QClipboard Class | Qt GUI 5.15.6
See also: python - PyQT - copy file to clipboard - Stack Overflow

import wx
def ctc(text):
if not wx.TheClipboard.IsOpened():
wx.TheClipboard.Open()
data = wx.TextDataObject()
data.SetText(text)
wx.TheClipboard.SetData(data)
wx.TheClipboard.Close()
ctc(text)

The snippet I share here take advantage of the ability to format text files: what if you want to copy a complex output to the clipboard ? (Say a numpy array in column or a list of something)
import subprocess
import os
def cp2clip(clist):
#create a temporary file
fi=open("thisTextfileShouldNotExist.txt","w")
#write in the text file the way you want your data to be
for m in clist:
fi.write(m+"\n")
#close the file
fi.close()
#send "clip < file" to the shell
cmd="clip < thisTextfileShouldNotExist.txt"
w = subprocess.check_call(cmd,shell=True)
#delete the temporary text file
os.remove("thisTextfileShouldNotExist.txt")
return w
works only for windows, can be adapted for linux or mac I guess. Maybe a bit complicated...
example:
>>>cp2clip(["ET","phone","home"])
>>>0
Ctrl+V in any text editor :
ET
phone
home

This is the improved answer of atomizer.
Note 2 calls of update() and 200 ms delay between them. They protect freezing applications due to an unstable state of the clipboard:
from Tkinter import Tk
import time
r = Tk()
r.withdraw()
r.clipboard_clear()
r.clipboard_append('some string')
r.update()
time.sleep(.2)
r.update()
r.destroy()

Use python's clipboard library!
import clipboard as cp
cp.copy("abc")
Clipboard contains 'abc' now. Happy pasting!

You can use winclip32 module!
install:
pip install winclip32
to copy:
import winclip32
winclip32.set_clipboard_data(winclip32.UNICODE_STD_TEXT, "some text")
to get:
import winclip32
print(winclip32.get_clipboard_data(winclip32.UNICODE_STD_TEXT))
for more informations: https://pypi.org/project/winclip32/

On Windows, you can use this. No external dependencies neither have to open sub-process:
import win32clipboard
def to_clipboard(txt):
win32clipboard.OpenClipboard()
win32clipboard.EmptyClipboard()
win32clipboard.SetClipboardText(txt)
win32clipboard.CloseClipboard()

My multiplatform solution base on this question:
import subprocess
import distutils.spawn
def clipit(text):
if distutils.spawn.find_executable("xclip"):
# for Linux
subprocess.run(["xclip", "-i"], input=text.encode("utf8"))
elif distutils.spawn.find_executable("xsel"):
# for Linux
subprocess.run(["xsel", "--input"], input=text.encode("utf8"))
elif distutils.spawn.find_executable("clip"):
# for Windows
subprocess.run(["clip"], input=text.encode("utf8"))
else:
import pyperclip
print("I use module pyperclip.")
pyperclip.copy(text)

Code snippet to copy the clipboard:
Create a wrapper Python code in a module named (clipboard.py):
import clr
clr.AddReference('System.Windows.Forms')
from System.Windows.Forms import Clipboard
def setText(text):
Clipboard.SetText(text)
def getText():
return Clipboard.GetText()
Then import the above module into your code.
import io
import clipboard
code = clipboard.getText()
print code
code = "abcd"
clipboard.setText(code)
I must give credit to the blog post Clipboard Access in IronPython.

you can try this:
command = 'echo content |clip'
subprocess.check_call(command, shell=True)

How to create a shortcut in startmenu using setuptools windows installer

I want to create a start menu or Desktop shortcut for my Python windows installer package. I am trying to follow https://docs.python.org/3.4/distutils/builtdist.html#the-postinstallation-script
Here is my script;
import sys
from os.path import dirname, join, expanduser
pyw_executable = sys.executable.replace('python.exe','pythonw.exe')
script_file = join(dirname(pyw_executable), 'Scripts', 'tklsystem-script.py')
w_dir = expanduser(join('~','lsf_files'))
print(sys.argv)
if sys.argv[1] == '-install':
print('Creating Shortcut')
create_shortcut(
target=pyw_executable,
description='A program to work with L-System Equations',
filename='L-System Tool',
arguments=script_file,
workdir=wdir
)
I also specified this script in scripts setup option, as indicated by aforementioned docs.
Here is the command I use to create my installer;
python setup.py bdist_wininst --install-script tklsystem-post-install.py
After I install my package using created windows installer, I can't find where my shorcut is created, nor I can confirm whether my script run or not?
How can I make setuptools generated windows installer to create desktop or start menu shortcuts?

Like others have commented here and elsewhere the support functions don't seem to work at all (at least not with setuptools). After a good day's worth of searching through various resources I found a way to create at least the Desktop shortcut. I'm sharing my solution (basically an amalgam of code I found here and here). I should add that my case is slightly different from yasar's, because it creates a shortcut to an installed package (i.e. an .exe file in Python's Scripts directory) instead of a script.
In short, I added a post_install function to my setup.py, and then used the Python extensions for Windows to create the shortcut. The location of the Desktop folder is read from the Windows registry (there are other methods for this, but they can be unreliable if the Desktop is at a non-standard location).
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
import sysconfig
if sys.platform == 'win32':
from win32com.client import Dispatch
import winreg
def get_reg(name,path):
# Read variable from Windows Registry
# From https://stackoverflow.com/a/35286642
try:
registry_key = winreg.OpenKey(winreg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER, path, 0,
winreg.KEY_READ)
value, regtype = winreg.QueryValueEx(registry_key, name)
winreg.CloseKey(registry_key)
return value
except WindowsError:
return None
def post_install():
# Creates a Desktop shortcut to the installed software
# Package name
packageName = 'mypackage'
# Scripts directory (location of launcher script)
scriptsDir = sysconfig.get_path('scripts')
# Target of shortcut
target = os.path.join(scriptsDir, packageName + '.exe')
# Name of link file
linkName = packageName + '.lnk'
# Read location of Windows desktop folder from registry
regName = 'Desktop'
regPath = r'Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders'
desktopFolder = os.path.normpath(get_reg(regName,regPath))
# Path to location of link file
pathLink = os.path.join(desktopFolder, linkName)
shell = Dispatch('WScript.Shell')
shortcut = shell.CreateShortCut(pathLink)
shortcut.Targetpath = target
shortcut.WorkingDirectory = scriptsDir
shortcut.IconLocation = target
shortcut.save()
setup(name='mypackage',
...,
...)
if sys.argv[1] == 'install' and sys.platform == 'win32':
post_install()
Here's a link to a full setup script in which I used this:
https://github.com/KBNLresearch/iromlab/blob/master/setup.py

If you want to confirm whether the script is running or not, you can print to a file instead of the console. Looks like text you print to console in the post-install script won't show up.
Try this:
import sys
from os.path import expanduser, join
pyw_executable = join(sys.prefix, "pythonw.exe")
shortcut_filename = "L-System Toolsss.lnk"
working_dir = expanduser(join('~','lsf_files'))
script_path = join(sys.prefix, "Scripts", "tklsystem-script.py")
if sys.argv[1] == '-install':
# Log output to a file (for test)
f = open(r"C:\test.txt",'w')
print('Creating Shortcut', file=f)
# Get paths to the desktop and start menu
desktop_path = get_special_folder_path("CSIDL_COMMON_DESKTOPDIRECTORY")
startmenu_path = get_special_folder_path("CSIDL_COMMON_STARTMENU")
# Create shortcuts.
for path in [desktop_path, startmenu_path]:
create_shortcut(pyw_executable,
"A program to work with L-System Equations",
join(path, shortcut_filename),
script_path,
working_dir)

At least with Python 3.6.5, 32bit on Windows, setuptools does work for this. But based on the accepted answer, by trial and error I found some issues that may have caused your script to fail to do what you wanted.
create_shortcut does not accept keyword arguments, only positional, so its usage in your code is invalid
You must add a .lnk extension for Windows to recognise the shortcut
I found sys.executable will be the name of the installer executable, not the python executable
As mentioned, you can't see stdout or stderr so you might want to log to a text file. I would suggest also redirecting sys.stdout and sys.stderr to the log file.
(Maybe not relevant) as mentioned in this question there appears to be a bug with the version string generated by bdist_wininst. I used the hexediting hack from an answer there to work around this. The location in the answer is not the same, you have to find the -32 yourself.
Full example script:
import sys
import os
import datetime
global datadir
datadir = os.path.join(get_special_folder_path("CSIDL_APPDATA"), "mymodule")
def main(argv):
if "-install" in argv:
desktop = get_special_folder_path("CSIDL_DESKTOPDIRECTORY")
print("Desktop path: %s" % repr(desktop))
if not os.path.exists(datadir):
os.makedirs(datadir)
dir_created(datadir)
print("Created data directory: %s" % repr(datadir))
else:
print("Data directory already existed at %s" % repr(datadir))
shortcut = os.path.join(desktop, "MyModule.lnk")
if os.path.exists(shortcut):
print("Remove existing shortcut at %s" % repr(shortcut))
os.unlink(shortcut)
print("Creating shortcut at %s...\n" % shortcut)
create_shortcut(
r'C:\Python36\python.exe',
"MyModuleScript",
shortcut,
"",
datadir)
file_created(shortcut)
print("Successfull!")
elif "-remove" in sys.argv:
print("Removing...")
pass
if __name__ == "__main__":
logfile = r'C:\mymodule_install.log' # Fallback location
if os.path.exists(datadir):
logfile = os.path.join(datadir, "install.log")
elif os.environ.get("TEMP") and os.path.exists(os.environ.get("TEMP"),""):
logfile = os.path.join(os.environ.get("TEMP"), "mymodule_install.log")
with open(logfile, 'a+') as f:
f.write("Opened\r\n")
f.write("Ran %s %s at %s" % (sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), datetime.datetime.now().isoformat()))
sys.stdout = f
sys.stderr = f
try:
main(sys.argv)
except Exception as e:
raise
f.close()
sys.exit(0)

UPD: on an off chance that the client machine has pywin32 installed, we try in-process creation first. Somewhat cleaner that way.
Here is another take. This assumes the package is called myapp, and that also becomes the executable that you want a shortcut to. Substitute your own package name and your own shortcut text.
Uses a Windows Scripting Host COM class - in process if possible, inside a Powershell command line as a subprocess if not. Tested on Python 3.6+.
from setuptools import setup
from setuptools.command.install import install
import platform, sys, os, site
from os import path, environ
def create_shortcut_under(root, exepath):
# Root is an env variable name -
# either ALLUSERSPROFILE for the all users' Start menu,
# or APPDATA for the current user specific one
profile = environ[root]
linkpath = path.join(profile, "Microsoft", "Windows", "Start Menu", "Programs", "My Python app.lnk")
try:
from win32com.client import Dispatch
from pywintypes import com_error
try:
sh = Dispatch('WScript.Shell')
link = sh.CreateShortcut(linkpath)
link.TargetPath = exepath
link.Save()
return True
except com_error:
return False
except ImportError:
import subprocess
s = "$s=(New-Object -COM WScript.Shell).CreateShortcut('" + linkpath + "');$s.TargetPath='" + exepath + "';$s.Save()"
return subprocess.call(['powershell', s], stdout = subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr = subprocess.DEVNULL) == 0
def create_shortcut(inst):
try:
exepath = path.join(path.dirname(sys.executable), "Scripts", "myapp.exe")
if not path.exists(exepath):
# Support for "pip install --user"
exepath = path.join(path.dirname(site.getusersitepackages()), "Scripts", "myapp.exe")
# If can't modify the global menu, fall back to the
# current user's one
if not create_shortcut_under('ALLUSERSPROFILE', exepath):
create_shortcut_under('APPDATA', exepath)
except:
pass
class my_install(install):
def run(self):
install.run(self)
if platform.system() == 'Windows':
create_shortcut(self)
#...
setup(
#...
cmdclass={'install': my_install},
entry_points={"gui_scripts": ["myapp = myapp.__main__:main"]},

Copying a file in python : Permission denied [duplicate]

I want my Python script to copy files on Vista. When I run it from a normal cmd.exe window, no errors are generated, yet the files are NOT copied. If I run cmd.exe "as administator" and then run my script, it works fine.
This makes sense since User Account Control (UAC) normally prevents many file system actions.
Is there a way I can, from within a Python script, invoke a UAC elevation request (those dialogs that say something like "such and such app needs admin access, is this OK?")
If that's not possible, is there a way my script can at least detect that it is not elevated so it can fail gracefully?

As of 2017, an easy method to achieve this is the following:
import ctypes, sys
def is_admin():
try:
return ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin()
except:
return False
if is_admin():
# Code of your program here
else:
# Re-run the program with admin rights
ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1)
If you are using Python 2.x, then you should replace the last line for:
ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(None, u"runas", unicode(sys.executable), unicode(" ".join(sys.argv)), None, 1)
Also note that if you converted you python script into an executable file (using tools like py2exe, cx_freeze, pyinstaller) then you should use sys.argv[1:] instead of sys.argv in the fourth parameter.
Some of the advantages here are:
No external libraries required. It only uses ctypes and sys from standard library.
Works on both Python 2 and Python 3.
There is no need to modify the file resources nor creating a manifest file.
If you don't add code below if/else statement, the code won't ever be executed twice.
You can get the return value of the API call in the last line and take an action if it fails (code <= 32). Check possible return values here.
You can change the display method of the spawned process modifying the sixth parameter.
Documentation for the underlying ShellExecute call is here.

It took me a little while to get dguaraglia's answer working, so in the interest of saving others time, here's what I did to implement this idea:
import os
import sys
import win32com.shell.shell as shell
ASADMIN = 'asadmin'
if sys.argv[-1] != ASADMIN:
script = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0])
params = ' '.join([script] + sys.argv[1:] + [ASADMIN])
shell.ShellExecuteEx(lpVerb='runas', lpFile=sys.executable, lpParameters=params)
sys.exit(0)

It seems there's no way to elevate the application privileges for a while for you to perform a particular task. Windows needs to know at the start of the program whether the application requires certain privileges, and will ask the user to confirm when the application performs any tasks that need those privileges. There are two ways to do this:
Write a manifest file that tells Windows the application might require some privileges
Run the application with elevated privileges from inside another program
This two articles explain in much more detail how this works.
What I'd do, if you don't want to write a nasty ctypes wrapper for the CreateElevatedProcess API, is use the ShellExecuteEx trick explained in the Code Project article (Pywin32 comes with a wrapper for ShellExecute). How? Something like this:
When your program starts, it checks if it has Administrator privileges, if it doesn't it runs itself using the ShellExecute trick and exits immediately, if it does, it performs the task at hand.
As you describe your program as a "script", I suppose that's enough for your needs.
Cheers.

Just adding this answer in case others are directed here by Google Search as I was.
I used the elevate module in my Python script and the script executed with Administrator Privileges in Windows 10.
https://pypi.org/project/elevate/

The following example builds on MARTIN DE LA FUENTE SAAVEDRA's excellent work and accepted answer. In particular, two enumerations are introduced. The first allows for easy specification of how an elevated program is to be opened, and the second helps when errors need to be easily identified. Please note that if you want all command line arguments passed to the new process, sys.argv[0] should probably be replaced with a function call: subprocess.list2cmdline(sys.argv).
#! /usr/bin/env python3
import ctypes
import enum
import subprocess
import sys
# Reference:
# msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb762153(v=vs.85).aspx
# noinspection SpellCheckingInspection
class SW(enum.IntEnum):
HIDE = 0
MAXIMIZE = 3
MINIMIZE = 6
RESTORE = 9
SHOW = 5
SHOWDEFAULT = 10
SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3
SHOWMINIMIZED = 2
SHOWMINNOACTIVE = 7
SHOWNA = 8
SHOWNOACTIVATE = 4
SHOWNORMAL = 1
class ERROR(enum.IntEnum):
ZERO = 0
FILE_NOT_FOUND = 2
PATH_NOT_FOUND = 3
BAD_FORMAT = 11
ACCESS_DENIED = 5
ASSOC_INCOMPLETE = 27
DDE_BUSY = 30
DDE_FAIL = 29
DDE_TIMEOUT = 28
DLL_NOT_FOUND = 32
NO_ASSOC = 31
OOM = 8
SHARE = 26
def bootstrap():
if ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin():
main()
else:
# noinspection SpellCheckingInspection
hinstance = ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None,
'runas',
sys.executable,
subprocess.list2cmdline(sys.argv),
None,
SW.SHOWNORMAL
)
if hinstance <= 32:
raise RuntimeError(ERROR(hinstance))
def main():
# Your Code Here
print(input('Echo: '))
if __name__ == '__main__':
bootstrap()

Recognizing this question was asked years ago, I think a more elegant solution is offered on github by frmdstryr using his module pywinutils:
Excerpt:
import pythoncom
from win32com.shell import shell,shellcon
def copy(src,dst,flags=shellcon.FOF_NOCONFIRMATION):
""" Copy files using the built in Windows File copy dialog
Requires absolute paths. Does NOT create root destination folder if it doesn't exist.
Overwrites and is recursive by default
#see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775799(v=vs.85).aspx for flags available
"""
# #see IFileOperation
pfo = pythoncom.CoCreateInstance(shell.CLSID_FileOperation,None,pythoncom.CLSCTX_ALL,shell.IID_IFileOperation)
# Respond with Yes to All for any dialog
# #see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775799(v=vs.85).aspx
pfo.SetOperationFlags(flags)
# Set the destionation folder
dst = shell.SHCreateItemFromParsingName(dst,None,shell.IID_IShellItem)
if type(src) not in (tuple,list):
src = (src,)
for f in src:
item = shell.SHCreateItemFromParsingName(f,None,shell.IID_IShellItem)
pfo.CopyItem(item,dst) # Schedule an operation to be performed
# #see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775780(v=vs.85).aspx
success = pfo.PerformOperations()
# #see sdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775769(v=vs.85).aspx
aborted = pfo.GetAnyOperationsAborted()
return success is None and not aborted
This utilizes the COM interface and automatically indicates that admin privileges are needed with the familiar dialog prompt that you would see if you were copying into a directory where admin privileges are required and also provides the typical file progress dialog during the copy operation.

This may not completely answer your question but you could also try using the Elevate Command Powertoy in order to run the script with elevated UAC privileges.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.06.elevation.aspx
I think if you use it it would look like 'elevate python yourscript.py'

You can make a shortcut somewhere and as the target use:
python yourscript.py
then under properties and advanced select run as administrator.
When the user executes the shortcut it will ask them to elevate the application.

A variation on Jorenko's work above allows the elevated process to use the same console (but see my comment below):
def spawn_as_administrator():
""" Spawn ourself with administrator rights and wait for new process to exit
Make the new process use the same console as the old one.
Raise Exception() if we could not get a handle for the new re-run the process
Raise pywintypes.error() if we could not re-spawn
Return the exit code of the new process,
or return None if already running the second admin process. """
#pylint: disable=no-name-in-module,import-error
import win32event, win32api, win32process
import win32com.shell.shell as shell
if '--admin' in sys.argv:
return None
script = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0])
params = ' '.join([script] + sys.argv[1:] + ['--admin'])
SEE_MASK_NO_CONSOLE = 0x00008000
SEE_MASK_NOCLOSE_PROCESS = 0x00000040
process = shell.ShellExecuteEx(lpVerb='runas', lpFile=sys.executable, lpParameters=params, fMask=SEE_MASK_NO_CONSOLE|SEE_MASK_NOCLOSE_PROCESS)
hProcess = process['hProcess']
if not hProcess:
raise Exception("Could not identify administrator process to install drivers")
# It is necessary to wait for the elevated process or else
# stdin lines are shared between 2 processes: they get one line each
INFINITE = -1
win32event.WaitForSingleObject(hProcess, INFINITE)
exitcode = win32process.GetExitCodeProcess(hProcess)
win32api.CloseHandle(hProcess)
return exitcode

This is mostly an upgrade to Jorenko's answer, that allows to use parameters with spaces in Windows, but should also work fairly well on Linux :)
Also, will work with cx_freeze or py2exe since we don't use __file__ but sys.argv[0] as executable
[EDIT]
Disclaimer: The code in this post is outdated.
I have published the elevation code as a python package.
Install with pip install command_runner
Usage:
from command_runner.elevate import elevate
def main():
"""My main function that should be elevated"""
print("Who's the administrator, now ?")
if __name__ == '__main__':
elevate(main)
[/EDIT]
import sys,ctypes,platform
def is_admin():
try:
return ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin()
except:
raise False
if __name__ == '__main__':
if platform.system() == "Windows":
if is_admin():
main(sys.argv[1:])
else:
# Re-run the program with admin rights, don't use __file__ since py2exe won't know about it
# Use sys.argv[0] as script path and sys.argv[1:] as arguments, join them as lpstr, quoting each parameter or spaces will divide parameters
lpParameters = ""
# Litteraly quote all parameters which get unquoted when passed to python
for i, item in enumerate(sys.argv[0:]):
lpParameters += '"' + item + '" '
try:
ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(None, "runas", sys.executable, lpParameters , None, 1)
except:
sys.exit(1)
else:
main(sys.argv[1:])

For one-liners, put the code to where you need UAC.
Request UAC, if failed, keep running:
import ctypes, sys
ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin() or ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1) > 32 and exit()
Request UAC, if failed, exit:
import ctypes, sys
ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin() or (ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1) > 32, exit())
Function style:
# Created by BaiJiFeiLong#gmail.com at 2022/6/24
import ctypes
import sys
def request_uac_or_skip():
ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin() or ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1) > 32 and sys.exit()
def request_uac_or_exit():
ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin() or (ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1) > 32, sys.exit())

If your script always requires an Administrator's privileges then:
runas /user:Administrator "python your_script.py"

How do I copy a string to the clipboard?

I'm trying to make a basic Windows application that builds a string out of user input and then adds it to the clipboard. How do I copy a string to the clipboard using Python?

Actually, pywin32 and ctypes seem to be an overkill for this simple task. tkinter is a cross-platform GUI framework, which ships with Python by default and has clipboard accessing methods along with other cool stuff.
If all you need is to put some text to system clipboard, this will do it:
from tkinter import Tk # in Python 2, use "Tkinter" instead
r = Tk()
r.withdraw()
r.clipboard_clear()
r.clipboard_append('i can has clipboardz?')
r.update() # now it stays on the clipboard after the window is closed
r.destroy()
And that's all, no need to mess around with platform-specific third-party libraries.
If you are using Python 2, replace tkinter with Tkinter.

I didn't have a solution, just a workaround.
Windows Vista onwards has an inbuilt command called clip that takes the output of a command from command line and puts it into the clipboard. For example, ipconfig | clip.
So I made a function with the os module which takes a string and adds it to the clipboard using the inbuilt Windows solution.
import os
def addToClipBoard(text):
command = 'echo ' + text.strip() + '| clip'
os.system(command)
# Example
addToClipBoard('penny lane')
# Penny Lane is now in your ears, eyes, and clipboard.
As previously noted in the comments however, one downside to this approach is that the echo command automatically adds a newline to the end of your text. To avoid this you can use a modified version of the command:
def addToClipBoard(text):
command = 'echo | set /p nul=' + text.strip() + '| clip'
os.system(command)
If you are using Windows XP it will work just following the steps in Copy and paste from Windows XP Pro's command prompt straight to the Clipboard.

You can use pyperclip - cross-platform clipboard module. Or Xerox - similar module, except requires the win32 Python module to work on Windows.

The simplest way is with pyperclip. Works in python 2 and 3.
To install this library, use:
pip install pyperclip
Example usage:
import pyperclip
pyperclip.copy("your string")
If you want to get the contents of the clipboard:
clipboard_content = pyperclip.paste()

You can use the excellent pandas, which has a built in clipboard support, but you need to pass through a DataFrame.
import pandas as pd
df=pd.DataFrame(['Text to copy'])
df.to_clipboard(index=False,header=False)

You can also use ctypes to tap into the Windows API and avoid the massive pywin32 package. This is what I use (excuse the poor style, but the idea is there):
import ctypes
# Get required functions, strcpy..
strcpy = ctypes.cdll.msvcrt.strcpy
ocb = ctypes.windll.user32.OpenClipboard # Basic clipboard functions
ecb = ctypes.windll.user32.EmptyClipboard
gcd = ctypes.windll.user32.GetClipboardData
scd = ctypes.windll.user32.SetClipboardData
ccb = ctypes.windll.user32.CloseClipboard
ga = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalAlloc # Global memory allocation
gl = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalLock # Global memory Locking
gul = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalUnlock
GMEM_DDESHARE = 0x2000
def Get():
ocb(None) # Open Clip, Default task
pcontents = gcd(1) # 1 means CF_TEXT.. too lazy to get the token thingy...
data = ctypes.c_char_p(pcontents).value
#gul(pcontents) ?
ccb()
return data
def Paste(data):
ocb(None) # Open Clip, Default task
ecb()
hCd = ga(GMEM_DDESHARE, len(bytes(data,"ascii")) + 1)
pchData = gl(hCd)
strcpy(ctypes.c_char_p(pchData), bytes(data, "ascii"))
gul(hCd)
scd(1, hCd)
ccb()

Here's the most easy and reliable way I found if you're okay depending on Pandas. However I don't think this is officially part of the Pandas API so it may break with future updates. It works as of 0.25.3
from pandas.io import clipboard
clipboard.copy("test")

For some reason I've never been able to get the Tk solution to work for me. kapace's solution is much more workable, but the formatting is contrary to my style and it doesn't work with Unicode. Here's a modified version.
import ctypes
from ctypes.wintypes import BOOL, HWND, HANDLE, HGLOBAL, UINT, LPVOID
from ctypes import c_size_t as SIZE_T
OpenClipboard = ctypes.windll.user32.OpenClipboard
OpenClipboard.argtypes = HWND,
OpenClipboard.restype = BOOL
EmptyClipboard = ctypes.windll.user32.EmptyClipboard
EmptyClipboard.restype = BOOL
GetClipboardData = ctypes.windll.user32.GetClipboardData
GetClipboardData.argtypes = UINT,
GetClipboardData.restype = HANDLE
SetClipboardData = ctypes.windll.user32.SetClipboardData
SetClipboardData.argtypes = UINT, HANDLE
SetClipboardData.restype = HANDLE
CloseClipboard = ctypes.windll.user32.CloseClipboard
CloseClipboard.restype = BOOL
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
GlobalAlloc = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalAlloc
GlobalAlloc.argtypes = UINT, SIZE_T
GlobalAlloc.restype = HGLOBAL
GlobalLock = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalLock
GlobalLock.argtypes = HGLOBAL,
GlobalLock.restype = LPVOID
GlobalUnlock = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalUnlock
GlobalUnlock.argtypes = HGLOBAL,
GlobalSize = ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalSize
GlobalSize.argtypes = HGLOBAL,
GlobalSize.restype = SIZE_T
GMEM_MOVEABLE = 0x0002
GMEM_ZEROINIT = 0x0040
unicode_type = type(u'')
def get():
text = None
OpenClipboard(None)
handle = GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
pcontents = GlobalLock(handle)
size = GlobalSize(handle)
if pcontents and size:
raw_data = ctypes.create_string_buffer(size)
ctypes.memmove(raw_data, pcontents, size)
text = raw_data.raw.decode('utf-16le').rstrip(u'\0')
GlobalUnlock(handle)
CloseClipboard()
return text
def put(s):
if not isinstance(s, unicode_type):
s = s.decode('mbcs')
data = s.encode('utf-16le')
OpenClipboard(None)
EmptyClipboard()
handle = GlobalAlloc(GMEM_MOVEABLE | GMEM_ZEROINIT, len(data) + 2)
pcontents = GlobalLock(handle)
ctypes.memmove(pcontents, data, len(data))
GlobalUnlock(handle)
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, handle)
CloseClipboard()
paste = get
copy = put
The above has changed since this answer was first created, to better cope with extended Unicode characters and Python 3. It has been tested in both Python 2.7 and 3.5, and works even with emoji such as \U0001f601 (😁).
Update 2021-10-26: This was working great for me in Windows 7 and Python 3.8. Then I got a new computer with Windows 10 and Python 3.10, and it failed for me the same way as indicated in the comments. This post gave me the answer. The functions from ctypes don't have argument and return types properly specified, and the defaults don't work consistently with 64-bit values. I've modified the above code to include that missing information.

I've tried various solutions, but this is the simplest one that passes my test:
#coding=utf-8
import win32clipboard # http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/
def copy(text):
win32clipboard.OpenClipboard()
win32clipboard.EmptyClipboard()
win32clipboard.SetClipboardText(text, win32clipboard.CF_UNICODETEXT)
win32clipboard.CloseClipboard()
def paste():
win32clipboard.OpenClipboard()
data = win32clipboard.GetClipboardData(win32clipboard.CF_UNICODETEXT)
win32clipboard.CloseClipboard()
return data
if __name__ == "__main__":
text = "Testing\nthe “clip—board”: 📋"
try: text = text.decode('utf8') # Python 2 needs decode to make a Unicode string.
except AttributeError: pass
print("%r" % text.encode('utf8'))
copy(text)
data = paste()
print("%r" % data.encode('utf8'))
print("OK" if text == data else "FAIL")
try: print(data)
except UnicodeEncodeError as er:
print(er)
print(data.encode('utf8'))
Tested OK in Python 3.4 on Windows 8.1 and Python 2.7 on Windows 7. Also when reading Unicode data with Unix linefeeds copied from Windows. Copied data stays on the clipboard after Python exits: "Testing
the “clip—board”: 📋"
If you want no external dependencies, use this code (now part of cross-platform pyperclip - C:\Python34\Scripts\pip install --upgrade pyperclip):
def copy(text):
GMEM_DDESHARE = 0x2000
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
d = ctypes.windll # cdll expects 4 more bytes in user32.OpenClipboard(None)
try: # Python 2
if not isinstance(text, unicode):
text = text.decode('mbcs')
except NameError:
if not isinstance(text, str):
text = text.decode('mbcs')
d.user32.OpenClipboard(0)
d.user32.EmptyClipboard()
hCd = d.kernel32.GlobalAlloc(GMEM_DDESHARE, len(text.encode('utf-16-le')) + 2)
pchData = d.kernel32.GlobalLock(hCd)
ctypes.cdll.msvcrt.wcscpy(ctypes.c_wchar_p(pchData), text)
d.kernel32.GlobalUnlock(hCd)
d.user32.SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, hCd)
d.user32.CloseClipboard()
def paste():
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
d = ctypes.windll
d.user32.OpenClipboard(0)
handle = d.user32.GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
text = ctypes.c_wchar_p(handle).value
d.user32.CloseClipboard()
return text

Use pyperclip module
Install using pip pip install pyperclip.
https://pypi.org/project/pyperclip/
Copy text "Hello World!" to clip board
import pyperclip
pyperclip.copy('Hello World!')
You can use Ctrl+V anywhere to paste this somewhere.
Paste the copied text using python
pyperclip.paste() # This returns the copied text of type <class 'str'>

If you don't like the name you can use the derivative module clipboard.
Note: It's just a selective wrapper of pyperclip
After installing, import it:
import clipboard
Then you can copy like this:
clipboard.copy("This is copied")
You can also paste the copied text:
clipboard.paste()

Looks like you need to add win32clipboard to your site-packages. It's part of the pywin32 package

Not all of the answers worked for my various python configurations so this solution only uses the subprocess module. However, copy_keyword has to be pbcopy for Mac or clip for Windows:
import subprocess
subprocess.run('copy_keyword', universal_newlines=True, input='New Clipboard Value 😀')
Here's some more extensive code that automatically checks what the current operating system is:
import platform
import subprocess
copy_string = 'New Clipboard Value 😀'
# Check which operating system is running to get the correct copying keyword.
if platform.system() == 'Darwin':
copy_keyword = 'pbcopy'
elif platform.system() == 'Windows':
copy_keyword = 'clip'
subprocess.run(copy_keyword, universal_newlines=True, input=copy_string)

I think there is a much simpler solution to this.
name = input('What is your name? ')
print('Hello %s' % (name) )
Then run your program in the command line
python greeter.py | clip
This will pipe the output of your file to the clipboard

Widgets also have method named .clipboard_get() that returns the contents of the clipboard (unless some kind of error happens based on the type of data in the clipboard).
The clipboard_get() method is mentioned in this bug report:
http://bugs.python.org/issue14777
Strangely, this method was not mentioned in the common (but unofficial) online TkInter documentation sources that I usually refer to.

Solution with stdlib, without security issues
The following solution works in Linux without any additional library and without the risk of executing unwanted code in your shell.
import subprocess
def to_clipboard(text: str) -> None:
sp = subprocess.Popen(["xclip"], stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
sp.communicate(text.encode("utf8"))
Note that there multiple clipboard in Linux, the you use with the Middle Mouse (Primary) and yet another that you use pressing STRG+C,STRG+V.
You can define which clipboard is used by adding a selection parameter i.e. ["xclip", "-selection", "clipboard"].
See the man xclip for details.
If you using Windows, just replace xclip with clip.
This solution works without Tkinter, which not available some Python installations (i.e. the custom build I am currently using).

In addition to Mark Ransom's answer using ctypes:
This does not work for (all?) x64 systems since the handles seem to be truncated to int-size.
Explicitly defining args and return values helps to overcomes this problem.
import ctypes
import ctypes.wintypes as w
CF_UNICODETEXT = 13
u32 = ctypes.WinDLL('user32')
k32 = ctypes.WinDLL('kernel32')
OpenClipboard = u32.OpenClipboard
OpenClipboard.argtypes = w.HWND,
OpenClipboard.restype = w.BOOL
GetClipboardData = u32.GetClipboardData
GetClipboardData.argtypes = w.UINT,
GetClipboardData.restype = w.HANDLE
EmptyClipboard = u32.EmptyClipboard
EmptyClipboard.restype = w.BOOL
SetClipboardData = u32.SetClipboardData
SetClipboardData.argtypes = w.UINT, w.HANDLE,
SetClipboardData.restype = w.HANDLE
CloseClipboard = u32.CloseClipboard
CloseClipboard.argtypes = None
CloseClipboard.restype = w.BOOL
GHND = 0x0042
GlobalAlloc = k32.GlobalAlloc
GlobalAlloc.argtypes = w.UINT, w.ctypes.c_size_t,
GlobalAlloc.restype = w.HGLOBAL
GlobalLock = k32.GlobalLock
GlobalLock.argtypes = w.HGLOBAL,
GlobalLock.restype = w.LPVOID
GlobalUnlock = k32.GlobalUnlock
GlobalUnlock.argtypes = w.HGLOBAL,
GlobalUnlock.restype = w.BOOL
GlobalSize = k32.GlobalSize
GlobalSize.argtypes = w.HGLOBAL,
GlobalSize.restype = w.ctypes.c_size_t
unicode_type = type(u'')
def get():
text = None
OpenClipboard(None)
handle = GetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT)
pcontents = GlobalLock(handle)
size = GlobalSize(handle)
if pcontents and size:
raw_data = ctypes.create_string_buffer(size)
ctypes.memmove(raw_data, pcontents, size)
text = raw_data.raw.decode('utf-16le').rstrip(u'\0')
GlobalUnlock(handle)
CloseClipboard()
return text
def put(s):
if not isinstance(s, unicode_type):
s = s.decode('mbcs')
data = s.encode('utf-16le')
OpenClipboard(None)
EmptyClipboard()
handle = GlobalAlloc(GHND, len(data) + 2)
pcontents = GlobalLock(handle)
ctypes.memmove(pcontents, data, len(data))
GlobalUnlock(handle)
SetClipboardData(CF_UNICODETEXT, handle)
CloseClipboard()
#Test run
paste = get
copy = put
copy("Hello World!")
print(paste())

also you can use > clipboard
import clipboard
def copy(txt):
clipboard.copy(txt)
copy("your txt")

If (and only if) the application already uses Qt, you can use this (with the advantage of no additional third party dependency)
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication
clipboard = QApplication.clipboard()
# get text (if there's text inside instead of e.g. file)
clipboard.text()
# set text
clipboard.setText(s)
This requires a Qt application object to be already constructed, so it should not be used unless the application already uses Qt.
Besides, as usual, in X systems (and maybe other systems too), the content only persist until the application exists unless you use something like parcellite or xclipboard.
Documentation:
QGuiApplication Class | Qt GUI 5.15.6
QClipboard Class | Qt GUI 5.15.6
See also: python - PyQT - copy file to clipboard - Stack Overflow

import wx
def ctc(text):
if not wx.TheClipboard.IsOpened():
wx.TheClipboard.Open()
data = wx.TextDataObject()
data.SetText(text)
wx.TheClipboard.SetData(data)
wx.TheClipboard.Close()
ctc(text)

The snippet I share here take advantage of the ability to format text files: what if you want to copy a complex output to the clipboard ? (Say a numpy array in column or a list of something)
import subprocess
import os
def cp2clip(clist):
#create a temporary file
fi=open("thisTextfileShouldNotExist.txt","w")
#write in the text file the way you want your data to be
for m in clist:
fi.write(m+"\n")
#close the file
fi.close()
#send "clip < file" to the shell
cmd="clip < thisTextfileShouldNotExist.txt"
w = subprocess.check_call(cmd,shell=True)
#delete the temporary text file
os.remove("thisTextfileShouldNotExist.txt")
return w
works only for windows, can be adapted for linux or mac I guess. Maybe a bit complicated...
example:
>>>cp2clip(["ET","phone","home"])
>>>0
Ctrl+V in any text editor :
ET
phone
home

This is the improved answer of atomizer.
Note 2 calls of update() and 200 ms delay between them. They protect freezing applications due to an unstable state of the clipboard:
from Tkinter import Tk
import time
r = Tk()
r.withdraw()
r.clipboard_clear()
r.clipboard_append('some string')
r.update()
time.sleep(.2)
r.update()
r.destroy()

Use python's clipboard library!
import clipboard as cp
cp.copy("abc")
Clipboard contains 'abc' now. Happy pasting!

You can use winclip32 module!
install:
pip install winclip32
to copy:
import winclip32
winclip32.set_clipboard_data(winclip32.UNICODE_STD_TEXT, "some text")
to get:
import winclip32
print(winclip32.get_clipboard_data(winclip32.UNICODE_STD_TEXT))
for more informations: https://pypi.org/project/winclip32/

On Windows, you can use this. No external dependencies neither have to open sub-process:
import win32clipboard
def to_clipboard(txt):
win32clipboard.OpenClipboard()
win32clipboard.EmptyClipboard()
win32clipboard.SetClipboardText(txt)
win32clipboard.CloseClipboard()

My multiplatform solution base on this question:
import subprocess
import distutils.spawn
def clipit(text):
if distutils.spawn.find_executable("xclip"):
# for Linux
subprocess.run(["xclip", "-i"], input=text.encode("utf8"))
elif distutils.spawn.find_executable("xsel"):
# for Linux
subprocess.run(["xsel", "--input"], input=text.encode("utf8"))
elif distutils.spawn.find_executable("clip"):
# for Windows
subprocess.run(["clip"], input=text.encode("utf8"))
else:
import pyperclip
print("I use module pyperclip.")
pyperclip.copy(text)

Code snippet to copy the clipboard:
Create a wrapper Python code in a module named (clipboard.py):
import clr
clr.AddReference('System.Windows.Forms')
from System.Windows.Forms import Clipboard
def setText(text):
Clipboard.SetText(text)
def getText():
return Clipboard.GetText()
Then import the above module into your code.
import io
import clipboard
code = clipboard.getText()
print code
code = "abcd"
clipboard.setText(code)
I must give credit to the blog post Clipboard Access in IronPython.

you can try this:
command = 'echo content |clip'
subprocess.check_call(command, shell=True)

Request UAC elevation from within a Python script?

I want my Python script to copy files on Vista. When I run it from a normal cmd.exe window, no errors are generated, yet the files are NOT copied. If I run cmd.exe "as administator" and then run my script, it works fine.
This makes sense since User Account Control (UAC) normally prevents many file system actions.
Is there a way I can, from within a Python script, invoke a UAC elevation request (those dialogs that say something like "such and such app needs admin access, is this OK?")
If that's not possible, is there a way my script can at least detect that it is not elevated so it can fail gracefully?

As of 2017, an easy method to achieve this is the following:
import ctypes, sys
def is_admin():
try:
return ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin()
except:
return False
if is_admin():
# Code of your program here
else:
# Re-run the program with admin rights
ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1)
If you are using Python 2.x, then you should replace the last line for:
ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(None, u"runas", unicode(sys.executable), unicode(" ".join(sys.argv)), None, 1)
Also note that if you converted you python script into an executable file (using tools like py2exe, cx_freeze, pyinstaller) then you should use sys.argv[1:] instead of sys.argv in the fourth parameter.
Some of the advantages here are:
No external libraries required. It only uses ctypes and sys from standard library.
Works on both Python 2 and Python 3.
There is no need to modify the file resources nor creating a manifest file.
If you don't add code below if/else statement, the code won't ever be executed twice.
You can get the return value of the API call in the last line and take an action if it fails (code <= 32). Check possible return values here.
You can change the display method of the spawned process modifying the sixth parameter.
Documentation for the underlying ShellExecute call is here.

It took me a little while to get dguaraglia's answer working, so in the interest of saving others time, here's what I did to implement this idea:
import os
import sys
import win32com.shell.shell as shell
ASADMIN = 'asadmin'
if sys.argv[-1] != ASADMIN:
script = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0])
params = ' '.join([script] + sys.argv[1:] + [ASADMIN])
shell.ShellExecuteEx(lpVerb='runas', lpFile=sys.executable, lpParameters=params)
sys.exit(0)

It seems there's no way to elevate the application privileges for a while for you to perform a particular task. Windows needs to know at the start of the program whether the application requires certain privileges, and will ask the user to confirm when the application performs any tasks that need those privileges. There are two ways to do this:
Write a manifest file that tells Windows the application might require some privileges
Run the application with elevated privileges from inside another program
This two articles explain in much more detail how this works.
What I'd do, if you don't want to write a nasty ctypes wrapper for the CreateElevatedProcess API, is use the ShellExecuteEx trick explained in the Code Project article (Pywin32 comes with a wrapper for ShellExecute). How? Something like this:
When your program starts, it checks if it has Administrator privileges, if it doesn't it runs itself using the ShellExecute trick and exits immediately, if it does, it performs the task at hand.
As you describe your program as a "script", I suppose that's enough for your needs.
Cheers.

Just adding this answer in case others are directed here by Google Search as I was.
I used the elevate module in my Python script and the script executed with Administrator Privileges in Windows 10.
https://pypi.org/project/elevate/

The following example builds on MARTIN DE LA FUENTE SAAVEDRA's excellent work and accepted answer. In particular, two enumerations are introduced. The first allows for easy specification of how an elevated program is to be opened, and the second helps when errors need to be easily identified. Please note that if you want all command line arguments passed to the new process, sys.argv[0] should probably be replaced with a function call: subprocess.list2cmdline(sys.argv).
#! /usr/bin/env python3
import ctypes
import enum
import subprocess
import sys
# Reference:
# msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb762153(v=vs.85).aspx
# noinspection SpellCheckingInspection
class SW(enum.IntEnum):
HIDE = 0
MAXIMIZE = 3
MINIMIZE = 6
RESTORE = 9
SHOW = 5
SHOWDEFAULT = 10
SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3
SHOWMINIMIZED = 2
SHOWMINNOACTIVE = 7
SHOWNA = 8
SHOWNOACTIVATE = 4
SHOWNORMAL = 1
class ERROR(enum.IntEnum):
ZERO = 0
FILE_NOT_FOUND = 2
PATH_NOT_FOUND = 3
BAD_FORMAT = 11
ACCESS_DENIED = 5
ASSOC_INCOMPLETE = 27
DDE_BUSY = 30
DDE_FAIL = 29
DDE_TIMEOUT = 28
DLL_NOT_FOUND = 32
NO_ASSOC = 31
OOM = 8
SHARE = 26
def bootstrap():
if ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin():
main()
else:
# noinspection SpellCheckingInspection
hinstance = ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None,
'runas',
sys.executable,
subprocess.list2cmdline(sys.argv),
None,
SW.SHOWNORMAL
)
if hinstance <= 32:
raise RuntimeError(ERROR(hinstance))
def main():
# Your Code Here
print(input('Echo: '))
if __name__ == '__main__':
bootstrap()

Recognizing this question was asked years ago, I think a more elegant solution is offered on github by frmdstryr using his module pywinutils:
Excerpt:
import pythoncom
from win32com.shell import shell,shellcon
def copy(src,dst,flags=shellcon.FOF_NOCONFIRMATION):
""" Copy files using the built in Windows File copy dialog
Requires absolute paths. Does NOT create root destination folder if it doesn't exist.
Overwrites and is recursive by default
#see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775799(v=vs.85).aspx for flags available
"""
# #see IFileOperation
pfo = pythoncom.CoCreateInstance(shell.CLSID_FileOperation,None,pythoncom.CLSCTX_ALL,shell.IID_IFileOperation)
# Respond with Yes to All for any dialog
# #see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775799(v=vs.85).aspx
pfo.SetOperationFlags(flags)
# Set the destionation folder
dst = shell.SHCreateItemFromParsingName(dst,None,shell.IID_IShellItem)
if type(src) not in (tuple,list):
src = (src,)
for f in src:
item = shell.SHCreateItemFromParsingName(f,None,shell.IID_IShellItem)
pfo.CopyItem(item,dst) # Schedule an operation to be performed
# #see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775780(v=vs.85).aspx
success = pfo.PerformOperations()
# #see sdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775769(v=vs.85).aspx
aborted = pfo.GetAnyOperationsAborted()
return success is None and not aborted
This utilizes the COM interface and automatically indicates that admin privileges are needed with the familiar dialog prompt that you would see if you were copying into a directory where admin privileges are required and also provides the typical file progress dialog during the copy operation.

This may not completely answer your question but you could also try using the Elevate Command Powertoy in order to run the script with elevated UAC privileges.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.06.elevation.aspx
I think if you use it it would look like 'elevate python yourscript.py'

You can make a shortcut somewhere and as the target use:
python yourscript.py
then under properties and advanced select run as administrator.
When the user executes the shortcut it will ask them to elevate the application.

A variation on Jorenko's work above allows the elevated process to use the same console (but see my comment below):
def spawn_as_administrator():
""" Spawn ourself with administrator rights and wait for new process to exit
Make the new process use the same console as the old one.
Raise Exception() if we could not get a handle for the new re-run the process
Raise pywintypes.error() if we could not re-spawn
Return the exit code of the new process,
or return None if already running the second admin process. """
#pylint: disable=no-name-in-module,import-error
import win32event, win32api, win32process
import win32com.shell.shell as shell
if '--admin' in sys.argv:
return None
script = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0])
params = ' '.join([script] + sys.argv[1:] + ['--admin'])
SEE_MASK_NO_CONSOLE = 0x00008000
SEE_MASK_NOCLOSE_PROCESS = 0x00000040
process = shell.ShellExecuteEx(lpVerb='runas', lpFile=sys.executable, lpParameters=params, fMask=SEE_MASK_NO_CONSOLE|SEE_MASK_NOCLOSE_PROCESS)
hProcess = process['hProcess']
if not hProcess:
raise Exception("Could not identify administrator process to install drivers")
# It is necessary to wait for the elevated process or else
# stdin lines are shared between 2 processes: they get one line each
INFINITE = -1
win32event.WaitForSingleObject(hProcess, INFINITE)
exitcode = win32process.GetExitCodeProcess(hProcess)
win32api.CloseHandle(hProcess)
return exitcode

This is mostly an upgrade to Jorenko's answer, that allows to use parameters with spaces in Windows, but should also work fairly well on Linux :)
Also, will work with cx_freeze or py2exe since we don't use __file__ but sys.argv[0] as executable
[EDIT]
Disclaimer: The code in this post is outdated.
I have published the elevation code as a python package.
Install with pip install command_runner
Usage:
from command_runner.elevate import elevate
def main():
"""My main function that should be elevated"""
print("Who's the administrator, now ?")
if __name__ == '__main__':
elevate(main)
[/EDIT]
import sys,ctypes,platform
def is_admin():
try:
return ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin()
except:
raise False
if __name__ == '__main__':
if platform.system() == "Windows":
if is_admin():
main(sys.argv[1:])
else:
# Re-run the program with admin rights, don't use __file__ since py2exe won't know about it
# Use sys.argv[0] as script path and sys.argv[1:] as arguments, join them as lpstr, quoting each parameter or spaces will divide parameters
lpParameters = ""
# Litteraly quote all parameters which get unquoted when passed to python
for i, item in enumerate(sys.argv[0:]):
lpParameters += '"' + item + '" '
try:
ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(None, "runas", sys.executable, lpParameters , None, 1)
except:
sys.exit(1)
else:
main(sys.argv[1:])

For one-liners, put the code to where you need UAC.
Request UAC, if failed, keep running:
import ctypes, sys
ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin() or ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1) > 32 and exit()
Request UAC, if failed, exit:
import ctypes, sys
ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin() or (ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1) > 32, exit())
Function style:
# Created by BaiJiFeiLong#gmail.com at 2022/6/24
import ctypes
import sys
def request_uac_or_skip():
ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin() or ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1) > 32 and sys.exit()
def request_uac_or_exit():
ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin() or (ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(
None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1) > 32, sys.exit())

If your script always requires an Administrator's privileges then:
runas /user:Administrator "python your_script.py"