Fortune
fortune is a simple program that displays random poignant, inspirational, silly or snide phrase from a database of quotations. The fortune command-line utility is part of the fortune-mod package.
Contents
Installation
Install fortune-mod or fortune-mod-gitAUR.
wikiquote-fortune X, where X is the page's name. To use these files, run $ fortune /path/to/quote.Usage
- Command-line in a terminal:
$ fortune It is Texas law that when two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop, and neither shall proceed until the other has gone.
- To display a random quote when launching an interactive terminal, add the fortune command to the rc configuration file of your preferred shell:
#!/bin/bash # ~/.bashrc fortune
#!/bin/dash # ~/.dashrc fortune
- To display a random quote when logging into a login terminal, add the fortune command to the profile configuration file of your preferred shell:
#!/bin/mksh # ~/.profile fortune
Cowsay
Default cow with fortune
- Combined with the program cowsay:
$ cowthink $(fortune)
________________________________________
( The best cure for insomnia is to get a )
( lot of sleep. -W.C. Fields )
----------------------------------------
o ^__^
o (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
- Display a potentially offensive fortune:
$ cowsay $(fortune -o)
_________________________________
< Chastity is its own punishment. >
---------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
The ASCII images are generated by .cow text files located in /usr/share/cows, and all themes can be listed with the cowsay -l. These files can be edited to the user's liking; custom images can also be created from scratch or found on the net. The easiest way create a custom cow file is to use an existing one as a template. To test the custom file:
$ cowsay -f /path/to/file $(fortune)
Random cow with fortune
$ fortune -c | cowthink -f $(find /usr/share/cows -type f | shuf -n 1)
___________________________________________
( (computers) % A language that doesn't )
( affect the way you think about )
( programming is not worth knowing. )
------------------------------------------------------
o (__)
o /oo|
o (_"_)*+++++++++*
//I#\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ I \
I[I|I | | | | | I I `
I`I ' / / / ' ' I I
I I I I
~ ~ ~ ~
Scowleton
Random custom cow with fortune
Complex commands can be chained to produce detailed ASCII art sych as this Futurama example.
- Display a random cow with a random facial expression and wrap long lines of fortune text:
$ fortune -a | fmt -80 -s | $(shuf -n 1 -e cowsay cowthink) -$(shuf -n 1 -e b d g p s t w y) -f $(shuf -n 1 -e $(cowsay -l | tail -n +2)) -n
________________________________________
( Fry: I must be a robot. Why else would )
( human women refuse to date me? )
--------------------------------------------------
o
o
o
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` (/ (/
Ponysay
For full 256-colored cowsay-like art use ponysay (version 3.0 has 422 ponies). The syntax is the same, meaning $ ponysay message to say something and ponysay -l for a complete list of ponies. To select a pony to display, run $ ponysay --pony x "message", where x is a pony. To create more ponies use util-say-gitAUR and store them in ~/.local/share/ponysay/ponies and ~/.local/share/ponysay/ttyponies/ for desktop and TTY, respectively.