From 695281a4ce8b9b304b5f3eaa9c2ab16c0860173b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Ivan=20Miri=C4=87?=
 <1009277+imiric@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:10:46 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] fix: decoding Unicode on X11/Wayland in get-contents
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Previously if `x-select-request-type` was nil, `simpleclip-get-contents` would
decode Unicode characters as Latin-1. E.g. copying "🙂" and calling
`simpleclip-get-contents` would return:
```
\#("\\U0001f642" 0 10 (foreign-selection nil))
```

The fix mirrors `gui--selection-value-internal` as mentioned in the
previous TODO comment by trying UTF8_STRING, COMPOUND_TEXT,
STRING, and `text/plain;charset=utf-8' in order.

Full disclosure: this was produced with *heavy* assistance from LLMs,
but I reviewed and tested it to the best of my abilities, and it works
fine for me on Emacs 30.2 and (X)Wayland. `make test` passes.

Fixes #23
---
 ert-tests/simpleclip-test.el | 45 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 simpleclip.el                | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++-----
 2 files changed, 73 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ert-tests/simpleclip-test.el b/ert-tests/simpleclip-test.el
index a0ff8c7..5920a94 100644
--- a/ert-tests/simpleclip-test.el
+++ b/ert-tests/simpleclip-test.el
@@ -142,6 +142,51 @@
       (simpleclip-set-contents kept))))
 
 
+;;; Unicode / X selection target fallback
+
+(defvar simpleclip-test-latin1-emoji
+  (string 240 159 153 130)
+  "Raw UTF-8 bytes of U+1F642 as a unibyte string.")
+
+(defun simpleclip-test--make-selection-reader (selections)
+  "Return a fake selection reader backed by hash table SELECTIONS."
+  (lambda (type)
+    (gethash type selections)))
+
+(ert-deftest simpleclip-get-contents-utf8-fallback nil
+  "When `x-select-request-type' is nil, prefer UTF8_STRING over STRING.
+This mirrors `gui--selection-value-internal' and avoids interpreting
+UTF-8 bytes as Latin-1."
+  (let ((selections (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
+        (x-select-request-type nil))
+    (puthash 'UTF8_STRING "🙂" selections)
+    (puthash 'STRING simpleclip-test-latin1-emoji selections)
+    (should (equal (simpleclip--get-selection-contents
+                    'x
+                    (simpleclip-test--make-selection-reader selections))
+                   "🙂"))))
+
+(ert-deftest simpleclip-get-contents-utf8-fallback-order nil
+  "Fall back to STRING when UTF8_STRING is unavailable."
+  (let ((selections (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
+        (x-select-request-type nil))
+    (puthash 'STRING simpleclip-test-latin1-emoji selections)
+    (should (equal (simpleclip--get-selection-contents
+                    'x
+                    (simpleclip-test--make-selection-reader selections))
+                   simpleclip-test-latin1-emoji))))
+
+(ert-deftest simpleclip-get-contents-explicit-string nil
+  "When `x-select-request-type' is `STRING', use exactly that target."
+  (let ((selections (make-hash-table :test 'equal))
+        (x-select-request-type 'STRING))
+    (puthash 'STRING simpleclip-test-latin1-emoji selections)
+    (should (equal (simpleclip--get-selection-contents
+                    'x
+                    (simpleclip-test--make-selection-reader selections))
+                   simpleclip-test-latin1-emoji))))
+
+
 ;;
 ;; Emacs
 ;;
diff --git a/simpleclip.el b/simpleclip.el
index a26f18f..e5566ec 100644
--- a/simpleclip.el
+++ b/simpleclip.el
@@ -340,12 +340,15 @@ in GNU Emacs 24.1 or higher."
           (and (and (featurep 'mac)
                  (fboundp 'x-get-selection))
             (x-get-selection 'CLIPBOARD 'NSStringPboardType))
-          ;; todo, this should try more than one request type, as in gui--selection-value-internal
-          (and (fboundp 'gui-get-selection)
-            (gui-get-selection 'CLIPBOARD (car x-select-request-type)))
-          ;; todo, this should try more than one request type, as in gui--selection-value-internal
-          (and (fboundp 'x-get-selection)
-            (x-get-selection 'CLIPBOARD (car x-select-request-type))))))
+          ;; Mirror `gui--selection-value-internal': try each clipboard
+          ;; data type in order, falling back from UTF-8 to legacy targets.
+          (simpleclip--get-selection-contents
+           (window-system)
+           (lambda (type)
+             (or (and (fboundp 'gui-get-selection)
+                      (gui-get-selection 'CLIPBOARD type))
+                 (and (fboundp 'x-get-selection)
+                      (x-get-selection 'CLIPBOARD type))))))))
        (t
         (error "Clipboard support not available")))
     (error
@@ -370,6 +373,25 @@ in GNU Emacs 24.1 or higher."
        (error
         (error "Clipboard support not available"))))))
 
+(defun simpleclip--get-selection-contents (win-system get-selection)
+  "Get clipboard contents using selection target fallback.
+WIN-SYSTEM is the current window-system symbol. GET-SELECTION is
+a function (TYPE) that returns the selection for that data type.
+Mirrors `gui--selection-value-internal'."
+  (when (memq win-system '(x pgtk haiku))
+    (let ((request-type (or x-select-request-type
+                            '(UTF8_STRING COMPOUND_TEXT STRING text/plain\;charset=utf-8)))
+          text)
+      (with-demoted-errors "simpleclip--get-selection-contents: %S"
+        (if (consp request-type)
+            (while (and request-type (not text))
+              (setq text (funcall get-selection (car request-type)))
+              (setq request-type (cdr request-type)))
+          (setq text (funcall get-selection request-type))))
+      (when text
+        (remove-text-properties 0 (length text) '(foreign-selection nil) text))
+      text)))
+
 ;;;###autoload
 (defun simpleclip-set-contents (str-val)
   "Set the contents of the system clipboard to STR-VAL."