1xcowsay(6) Games Manual xcowsay(6)
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6 xcowsay - Display a cute cow and speech bubble.
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9 xcowsay [-h] [-t time] [-r speed] [-d] [-f font] [text]...
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13 Display a cow with a speech bubble containing some text. If text is
14 specified it will be displayed in the bubble. Otherwise the text will
15 be read from the standard input and displayed when end of file is
16 encountered.
17 The cow is displayed for either a fixed amount of time, or an amount of
19 time calculated from the size of the text. Click on the cow to dismiss
20 it immediately.
21 If xcowsay is started with --daemon it will fork away from the terminal
23 and run in daemon mode. The daemon provides a DBus service
24 uk.me.doof.Cowsay that responds to ShowCow requests. The daemon can
25 queue up any number of requests and displays them in order.
26 When xcowsay starts it checks to see if a daemon is running, and if it
28 is, sends a ShowCow request and returns immediately. Otherwise xcowsay
29 will block until the cow has disappeared.
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33 xcowsay reads a configuration file on startup. The configuration file
34 can be stored in the XDG compliant location $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xcowsayrc
35 (which will default to $HOME/.config/xcowsayrc) or in your home direc‐
36 tory at $HOME/.xcowsayrc. If the --config=FILE command line option is
37 passed FILE will be processed after your personal configuration file.
38 The configuration file consists of 'option = value' pairs, one per
40 line. The valid keys are given in the next section. For example, the
41 following line sets display time to 10 seconds:
42 display_time = 10000
44 The character '#' begins a comment which lasts until the end of the
46 line.
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50 Note that these options override any settings in the config file.
51 -h, --help
53 Display usage information.
54 -t time, --time=time
56 Display the cow for time seconds. This overrides any value set
57 for reading_speed. The corresponding config file option is dis‐
58 play_time.
59 -r speed, --reading-speed=speed
61 Number of milliseconds to display the cow for each word in the
62 input text. This is clamped to a minimum of min_display_time and
63 a maximum of max_display_time. The defaults are 1 second and 30
64 seconds respectively. The corresponding config file option is
65 reading_speed.
66 -f font, --font=font
68 Font for the speech bubble text. Accepts Pango font strings. The
69 corresponding config file option is font.
70 -d file, --dream=file
72 Display an image instead of text in the cow's bubble. The
73 dream_time config file option sets the numer of milliseconds to
74 display the image for. The default is 10 seconds.
75 --think
77 Display a thought bubble instead of a speech bubble.
78 --daemon
80 Run xcowsay in daemon mode if DBus support has been enabled. See
81 the description for more information.
82 --cow-size=size
84 Size of the cow image. Current choices are small, med, or
85 large. The corresponding config file option is cow_size.
86 --image=file
88 Use a different image instead of the cow. The corresponding
89 config file option is alt_image.
90 --monitor=N
92 Make the cow appear on monitor N.
93 --at=X,Y
95 Force that cow to appear at screen location (X,Y). The config
96 file options are at_x and at_y.
97 --bubble-at=X,Y
99 Change position of bubble relative to where it would normally
100 appear. This is most useful when combined with the alt_image
101 option to create your own characters. The config file options
102 are bubble_x and bubble_y.
103 --debug
105 Print messages about what xcowsay is doing. Useful for finding
106 out why the daemon fails.
107 -v, --version
109 Print version information.
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112 Written by Nick Gasson.
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115 Report all bugs to nick@nickg.me.uk The xcowsay home page is
116 <http://www.doof.me.uk/xcowsay>
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119 cowsay(6)
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122 There are a few issues I am aware of:
123 The cow and speech bubble have jagged edges which would be improved by
125 anti-aliasing.
126 Very long strings will disappear off the right-hand side of the screen.
128 This could be fixed e.g. by using Pango's word wrapping.
129 xcowsay(6)