Sessions

You can run multiple instances of the application given that they have different session names.

Running Multiple Instances

Each application instance should have unique name.

To start new instance with test1 name, run:

copyq --session=test1

This instance uses configuration, tabs and items unique to given session name.

You can still start default session (with empty session name) with just:

copyq

In the same manner you can manipulate the session. E.g. to add an item to first tab in test1 session, run:

copyq --session=test1 add "Some text"

Default session has empty name but it can be overridden by setting COPYQ_SESSION_NAME environment variable.

You need to use same session name for clients launched outside the application.

$ copyq -s test2 tab
ERROR: Cannot connect to server! Start CopyQ server first.

$ copyq -s test1 tab
&clipboard

Configuration Path

Current configuration path can be overridden with COPYQ_SETTINGS_PATH environment variable.

$ copyq info config
/home/user/.config/copyq/copyq.conf

$ COPYQ_SETTINGS_PATH=$HOME/copyq-settings copyq info config
/home/user/copyq-settings/copyq/copyq.conf

You need to use same configuration path (and session name) for clients launched outside the application.

$ copyq tab
ERROR: Cannot connect to server! Start CopyQ server first.

$ COPYQ_SETTINGS_PATH=$HOME/copyq-settings copyq tab
&clipboard

Item Data Path

Item data path can be overridden with COPYQ_ITEM_DATA_PATH environment variable.

$ copyq info data
/home/user/.local/share/copyq/copyq

$ COPYQ_ITEM_DATA_PATH=$HOME/copyq-data copyq info data
/home/user/copyq-data/copyq/copyq.conf

The directory contains data for items that exceeds 4096 bytes. The default threshold can be overridden with item_data_threshold option.

$ copyq config item_data_threshold
4096

To disable using the data directory and store everything into tab data files, set the threshold to a negative value. The tab data file will be updated only after the items in the tab change.

$ copyq config item_data_threshold -1
-1

Note: Using data directory ensure that the application is fast even if there are a lot of large items in tabs.

Icon Color

Icon for each session is bit different. The color is generated from session name and can be changed using COPYQ_SESSION_COLOR environment variable.

COPYQ_SESSION_COLOR="yellow" copyq
COPYQ_SESSION_COLOR="#f90" copyq

On Linux, changing icon color won’t work if current icon theme contains icon named “copyq-normal” or doesn’t contain “copyq-mask”. Use COPYQ_DEFAULT_ICON environment variable to avoid using the application icon from icon theme.

COPYQ_DEFAULT_ICON=1 copyq