• Mac OS X

    The Cut, Copy & Paste Daemon in OS X

    Ever seen com.apple.pboard in a launchctl list?  Wondered what it did?  This is the infamous clipboard (aka – pasteboard, or on the iPhone the NSPasteboard server).  If you unload the pboard entry in launchctl then you will no longer be able to cut, copy and paste.  pboard relies on the existence of and the accessibility to the user that initiated pboard (ie – root) to have access to the /tmp folder.  Therefore, pboard will be wonky without /tmp and without pboard you won’t be able to paste things.  So, when troubleshooting cut, copy and paste issues, first verify that /tmp exists and then verify that pboard is running using the…

  • Mac OS X

    April Fools – Trash Rather than Cut

    You can set the cut function of the Finder to move items into the trash rather than into the clipboard: defaults write com.apple.Finder AllowCutForItems true It’s not the nicest of jokes to play on people though… So to undo it: defaults write com.apple.Finder AllowCutForItems false Happy April Fools Day