Where are my copy buffers?

[David Blackman <david@whizziwig.com>]

I'm want to start writing perl & c programs that actually do stuff. What
I'm wondering is this: 

When I'm in X windows, and I highlight something, where does it go (I
know to the clipboard), but is that an actual file I can access?

When I'm on the console and I highlight something, where does it go? Is it
a file I can access? 

In a nutshell: where are the console & Xwindows clipboards located?

--dave