Linux clipboard: copy text through the core Wayland protocol

Where arboard can't open (GNOME has no data-control protocol, and the Flatpak on a
Wayland session has no X11), Copy and Paste use the compositor's core data-device
protocol on the window's own connection through smithay-clipboard, already in the
build through egui-winit: text only, a copy's text or its SVG markup. A bitmap-only
copy reports that this clipboard carries text only and leaves it as it was.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
wjrichards
2026-10-30 17:12:17 +07:00
committed by bflatastic
co-authored by Claude Opus 5.5
parent 33d15bec56
commit dd934dfd4e
7 changed files with 206 additions and 27 deletions
+3 -1
View File
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
# Development
> **Last updated:** 2026-10-29 · **Change:** Linux clipboard: the Flatpak on GNOME copies and pastes text through the core Wayland protocol.
> **Last updated:** 2026-10-29 · **Change:** Linux clipboard: a clipboard that can't be opened is retried with a growing wait and logged once.
> **Last updated:** 2026-10-25 · **Change:** Linux Wayland drag-and-drop note names eframe 0.37 (still on winit 0.30).
> **Last updated:** 2026-10-23 · **Change:** Tests: cargo xtask test, one integration-test binary per crate, the dev profile's debug info.
@@ -114,7 +115,7 @@ On GNOME/Wayland, enable **Preferences › User Interface › System Title Bar**
The window runs natively on Wayland (eframe's `wayland` feature) and on X11. On machines with two GPUs it renders on the one the desktop runs on unless Preferences say otherwise; see [Desktop graphics processor](#desktop-graphics-processor) (#502). The system clipboard (`apps/vectorcraft/src/clipboard.rs`) is arboard with its `wayland-data-control` feature:
- **Clipboard:** under Wayland arboard talks to the compositor through the data-control protocol (wlroots compositors such as Sway and Hyprland, KDE Plasma), so bitmaps (`image/png`), SVG markup and text copied in any app paste (#398). Where the compositor lacks the protocol (GNOME's Mutter, [arboard#223](https://github.com/1Password/arboard/issues/223)), arboard falls back to the X11 clipboard through XWayland, which only holds what X11 apps copied. A clipboard arboard can't open at all (the Flatpak on a Wayland session, where `--socket=fallback-x11` gives it no X11) is tried again after 1 s, doubling to a minute (a Copy or Paste of the user's at most once a second), and logged once when it goes and once when it comes back: before, the background Paste check reconnected and logged a warning every 250 ms. egui's own text paste into fields goes through smithay-clipboard and works either way.
- **Clipboard:** under Wayland arboard talks to the compositor through the data-control protocol (wlroots compositors such as Sway and Hyprland, KDE Plasma), so bitmaps (`image/png`), SVG markup and text copied in any app paste (#398). Where the compositor lacks the protocol (GNOME's Mutter, [arboard#223](https://github.com/1Password/arboard/issues/223)), arboard falls back to the X11 clipboard through XWayland, which only holds what X11 apps copied. Where there is no X11 either (the Flatpak on a Wayland session: `--socket=fallback-x11` gives it none), Copy and Paste use the compositor's core data-device protocol on the window's own connection through smithay-clipboard: text only (a copy's text or its SVG markup), and only while the window has focus. A clipboard neither backend opens is tried again after 1 s, doubling to a minute (a Copy or Paste of the user's at most once a second), and logged once when it goes and once when it comes back: before, the background Paste check reconnected and logged a warning every 250 ms. egui's own text paste into fields goes through smithay-clipboard and works either way.
- **Clipboard owners that never answer (#510):** reading the clipboard waits on the app that owns it: arboard gives up on an X11 owner after 4 s, and a Wayland read waits for the owner to send its data. So on Linux the check that enables the Paste menu items runs on a background thread with a second clipboard handle (`crates/ui-egui/src/clipboard_probe.rs`, installed as `Services::clipboard_probe`), only while nothing is copied in the app and a document is open, and the window keeps drawing. A paste itself still reads on the UI thread, so pasting from such an owner waits for it once. Windows and macOS keep the check on the UI thread: Windows only asks which formats the clipboard holds, macOS asks the pasteboard server.
- **Copied files:** files copied in a file manager (`text/uri-list`; `CF_HDROP` on Windows, file URLs on macOS) paste as the first one that is art (SVG, PDF, EPS, EMF/WMF or a bitmap; a `.ai` or `.ait` file from the editing data it holds, else as the PDF or PostScript it holds), before the clipboard's other formats (which include the files' paths as text).
- **Dropping files on the window does not work under Wayland:** winit 0.30, which eframe 0.37 runs on, has no Wayland drag and drop ([winit#1881](https://github.com/rust-windowing/winit/issues/1881), added in winit 0.31; [egui#1563](https://github.com/emilk/egui/issues/1563)), so no `dropped_files` arrive. Until eframe moves to winit 0.31: copy the files in the file manager and paste them, use File › Place or Open, or open the window through XWayland, where drops work: set **Preferences › Performance › Linux Display Server** to **X11 (XWayland)** and restart (#1151), or start the app with `WAYLAND_DISPLAY= vectorcraft`. The preference (`linuxDisplayServer`, read at startup in `apps/vectorcraft/src/main.rs`, shown on Linux only) has winit open the window on X11 (`EventLoopBuilderExtX11::with_x11`) when the session is Wayland, `DISPLAY` is set and the X11 libraries winit loads are installed (`apps/vectorcraft/src/xwayland.rs` reads `ldconfig -p` and the usual library directories); otherwise the window opens on Wayland and the log says why. Unlike clearing `WAYLAND_DISPLAY`, it leaves the clipboard on the compositor's own.
@@ -493,6 +494,7 @@ Scores and hour estimates are unchanged.
| Date | Change | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-29 | minor | Linux clipboard: core Wayland protocol text fallback where arboard has neither data-control nor X11 (the Flatpak on GNOME). |
| 2026-10-29 | minor | Linux clipboard: a clipboard arboard can't open is retried after 1 s doubling to 60 s and logged once, instead of every 250 ms. |
| 2026-10-28 | minor | Localisation: Catalan (`ca`) catalog and registry entry (every `ca-*` locale); complete under the catalog tests. |
| 2026-10-25 | minor | Linux Wayland drag-and-drop note names eframe 0.37 (still on winit 0.30); behavior unchanged. |