Fortune - ArchWiki

# Fortune

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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.

## Installation

Install fortune-mod or fortune-mod-gitAUR.

Tip:

- Meta packages which provide quotes from specific sources are available in the AUR under the prefix "fortune-mod-". For example, fortune-mod-archlinuxAUR contains Arch-related quotes.
- You can use wikiquote-fortuneAUR to generate fortune files from wikiquote pages, using the syntax `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

Note: fortune displays quotes and phrases deemed by its maintainer to be non-offensive. Aphorisms can be enabled as a mix of offensive/non-offensive or as potentially offensive output only. See fortune(6) for more information.

### Creating custom files

In order to create a custom file, you must first create a file containing the quotes. Between each quote you must add a line containing only the `%` character. Save this file using whatever name you want, for example myquotes. Then, run `strfile myquotes` in a terminal, in order to enable random access of the quotes. You can now access the quotes by executing `fortune myquotes` in a terminal. For this command to work you must be on the same directory as the `myquotes` and `myquotes.dat` files. If you want your quotes to be accessible by just running the `fortune` command, you must move both files into the `/usr/share/fortune/` directory. If you want to make any changes to your file, repeat from the start.

### Cowsay

See ASCII art#Cowsay.

### Ponysay

See ASCII art#Ponysay.

## See also

- fortune-mod GitHub project page

Category:

- Eye candy