[Regression] Copy entry does not seem to copy anything on the clipboard

[gpoo]

Overview

PyGObject does not suspport Gtk.Clipboard.set_with_data due
to a limitation in introspecting with more than one callback.

That was the method used with Gtk2, but with the new port does not
work.

Although, the statusbar says the entry was copied, the clipboard looks
unchanged.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Revelation with a file of keys
2. Select an entry
3. Select Copy or press Ctrl+C

Expected Behavior

The clipboard should contain a text representation of the entry

Actual Behavior

The clipboard does not seem to hold anything.

Context

Revelation - 0.5.3
Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04
Desktop Env: Gnome
Windowing System: Wayland

[gbm19]

Entry "Drag and Drop" and Copy/Paste use a special clipboard: EntryClipboard (revelation.py:331, data.py:146).
The contents of that special clipboard is only available in the EntryTree widget but it can handle copy/paste between different revelation instances, even if some are pygtk2 and the other pygtk3.
The behavior described here (#56) was already so in pygtk2 version 0.4.14.

[gpoo]

It does not seem to handle it in the same instance, for example, if I want to use one as a template of a new one.

[gbm19]

Sometimes (not always) for Paste to work, you have to be sure that EntryTree widget got the focus by pressing Mouse Left button on the empty space in the EntryTree widget.

[gpoo]

Sometimes (not always) for Paste to work, you have to be sure that EntryTree widget got the focus by pressing Mouse Left button on the empty space in the EntryTree widget.

I tried the following steps in both Revelation 0.4.14 and master:

1. Create a new folder: Foo
2. Create a new entry: Foo.
3. Right after pressing the button Add entry, I press Ctrl+C
4. Press Ctrl+V

In Revelation 0.4.14 the got a duplicated entry under the current one. The status bar shows Entries copied and later Entries pasted.

In Revelation master I only get the status bar Entries copied.

Both of them on a Wayland session. Gnome 3.36.3 (Ubuntu 20.04).

[gbm19]

I am afraid this is a problem/feature of Wayland.

According to https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives/Wayland/PrimarySelection:
"X has a generic selection mechanism which lets application own arbitrary selections and exchange data via them."
"The original Wayland protocol very intentionally supports only a single clipboard, which corresponds to the CLIPBOARD selection under X and works for explicit copy-paste"

And from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/wayland
"GTK 3 The gtk3 package has the Wayland backend enabled.
GTK will default to the Wayland backend, but it is possible to override it to Xwayland by modifying an environment variable: GDK_BACKEND=x11"

Thus, until a better workaround is found, to get copy/paste working on entries you have to set GDK_BACKEND=x11 before running revelation

Can you please confirm that with GDK_BACKEND=x11 copy/paste in revelation works as expected?

[mikelolasagasti]

With GDK_BACKEND=x11 revelation I'm able to cut/copy & paste.

[gpoo]

Why cannot we use the same clipboard? or in other words, why do we need to different clipboards: default and custom one?

Although the sentence quote there, I think is more related to having PRIMARY and CLIPBOARD, where PRIMARY is what the user gets when storing something just by selecting a text. It may be coincidence.

[gbm19]

I don't know for sure, but I guess it is for security reasons.
When using the CLIPBOARD selection, complete details of your copied/cut entries are available to any program running in your system.
By using a custom clipboard, with a name that you can change (src/lib/data.py:152), that data is only available to revelation instances.

[gpoo]

I don't know for sure, but I guess it is for security reasons.

We may need to check the logs, or ChangeLog to check if that was the rationale. It could also be that the data copied has a special format.

When using the CLIPBOARD selection, complete details of your copied/cut entries are available to any program running in your system.
By using a custom clipboard, with a name that you can change (src/lib/data.py:152), that data is only available to revelation instances.

Or any application that "listens" to that clipboard. That said, when we copy the password, we make it available to every application.

Anyhow, the use case is to duplicate an entry. We can provide just that, duplicating the entry underneath the current one. Later the use can move it. Or, we can offer “Duplicate to…”, to duplicate the entry in a different folder.

Later we can duplicate to another instance via a D-Bus.