Motif provides a set of routines for dealing with the CLIPBOARD selection. Although these routines are not obsolete, applications should use UTM routines, instead of these clipboard routines, whenever possible.
The Motif clipboard interface allows an application to assert ownership of the selection and request conversion of the selection. The interface stores the data in the selection and other information about the selection on the server. The owner can place the selection value in these server data structures either at the time it asserts ownership or at the time a client requests conversion.
By copying the selection value at the time it asserts ownership, an application can simplify conversion and make the data available for retrieval even if the owner is killed. By copying the selection value when a client requests it, an application can avoid converting data that no client may request. However, in this case, the application may need to make a copy of the data to be transferred. With either copying mechanism, the data is stored in the Motif clipboard's server data structures the first time a client requests the data.