Install yank with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper, winget

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• yank

Project history

The GitHub repository was created on 2015-08-24. The README frames the project around a terminal-user frustration: copying output with the mouse feels like a cache miss, while terminal multiplexer copy modes are not always available or desired.

The design stayed terminal-agnostic. yank recognizes fields either by regular expression with `-g` or by delimiter with `-d`, supports line selection with `-l`, and lets users replace the default clipboard command by passing a command after `--`.

Adoption history

yank has the kind of packaging spread typical of beloved Unix conveniences. The README documents installation through Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, Nix/NixOS, openSUSE, Homebrew, MacPorts, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and source builds. The supplied package data also shows broad distribution coverage.

Some Linux distributions install the binary as `yank-cli` because of a naming conflict, an adoption detail that matters to users searching for the command after installing the package.

How it is used

Common examples include `env | yank -d =` to select an environment variable key or value, `yank -d ", <file.csv` for CSV fields, `make 2>&1 | yank -l` for whole-line selection, and `ps ux | yank -g [0-9]+ | xargs kill` when stdout is not a terminal.

On X11 the default command is xsel. macOS users can build with `YANKCMD=pbcopy`, and the README also mentions shcopy for copying over SSH or from headless environments.

Why package nerds care

yank is package-nerd significant because it solves a tiny but common shell workflow problem in the Unix way: compose stdin, regex/delimiter selection, stdout fallback, and pluggable clipboard commands.

It also demonstrates why package names and binary names matter: the same tool may be installed as `yank` or `yank-cli` depending on distribution conflicts, which is exactly the sort of detail package catalogs help users untangle.

Timeline

• 2015-08-24: GitHub repository created.
• 2015: README copyright period begins and motivation centered on terminal clipboard selection without a mouse or multiplexer.
• 2010s: README documented distribution across Linux, BSD, and macOS package systems.
• 2020s: Project continued as a compact C utility with source builds and configurable clipboard command support.

Related projects

• Related tools include xsel, pbcopy, shcopy, terminal multiplexers, xargs, shell pipelines, package-manager variants that install yank-cli, and clipboard-oriented terminal utilities.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/mptre/yank
• https://github.com/mptre/yank
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mptre/yank/master/README.md
• https://www.basename.se/yank/
• source_facts.package-manager