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openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix WSL2: clipboard fails on execFile [1 pull requests]

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Root Cause

The clipboard module (src/infra/clipboard.ts) uses execFile to run clip.exe. On WSL2, Node.js's child_process.execFile (posix_spawn) cannot spawn Windows PE executables. WSL's binfmt_misc interop only works through shell-based execution.

// fails with ENOENT (not in Linux PATH)
execFile("clip.exe", [], {input: url})
// fails with SIGTERM even with full path
execFile("/mnt/c/Windows/System32/clip.exe", [], {input: url})
// but this works fine (through shell pipe)
exec("echo url | /mnt/c/Windows/System32/clip.exe")

Fix Action

Fixed

Code Example

// fails with ENOENT (not in Linux PATH)
execFile("clip.exe", [], {input: url})
// fails with SIGTERM even with full path
execFile("/mnt/c/Windows/System32/clip.exe", [], {input: url})
// but this works fine (through shell pipe)
exec("echo url | /mnt/c/Windows/System32/clip.exe")

---

{ argv: ["bash", "-c", "cat | /mnt/c/Windows/System32/clip.exe"] },
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Problem

On WSL2, openclaw dashboard fails to copy the token-authenticated URL to the Windows clipboard. The log says "Copied to clipboard" but nothing lands.

Root cause

The clipboard module (src/infra/clipboard.ts) uses execFile to run clip.exe. On WSL2, Node.js's child_process.execFile (posix_spawn) cannot spawn Windows PE executables. WSL's binfmt_misc interop only works through shell-based execution.

// fails with ENOENT (not in Linux PATH)
execFile("clip.exe", [], {input: url})
// fails with SIGTERM even with full path
execFile("/mnt/c/Windows/System32/clip.exe", [], {input: url})
// but this works fine (through shell pipe)
exec("echo url | /mnt/c/Windows/System32/clip.exe")

Suggested fix

Detect WSL and use shell-based execution:

{ argv: ["bash", "-c", "cat | /mnt/c/Windows/System32/clip.exe"] },

Environment

  • OpenClaw: 2026.5.27
  • OS: WSL2 Ubuntu, Linux 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
  • Node: v22.22.2

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openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix WSL2: clipboard fails on execFile [1 pull requests]