How to get selected text with xsel - Python

Question

I need a python script, which will get selected text in an other application with xsel, and then store it in a var.

Thanks

Answer 1

Once you have the text you want selected, run this:

import os

var = os.popen('xsel').read()
print var

Answer 2

I'm adding an additional answer based on the fact that os.popen is now considered obsolete. The following code is from the original answer (except variable naming changed for convenience):

out = os.popen("xsel").read()

Now we rewrite it using subprocess.Popen instead of os.popen:

process = subprocess.Popen("xsel", stdout=subprocess.PIPE, universal_newlines=True)
out = process.stdout.read()

It can be simplified as follows:

process = subprocess.Popen("xsel", stdout=subprocess.PIPE, universal_newlines=True)
out, err = process.communicate()

And the best at the end:

out = subprocess.check_output("xsel", universal_newlines=True)

The universal_newlines option, while the name doesn't suggest that, turns the input and output into text strings instead of byte strings, which are the default for subprocess.Popen.