1FORTUNE(6) UNIX Reference Manual FORTUNE(6)
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6 fortune - print a random, hopefully interesting, adage
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9 fortune [-acefilosw] [-n length] [ -m pattern] [[n%] file/dir/all]
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12 When fortune is run with no arguments it prints out a random epigram.
13 Epigrams are divided into several categories, where each category is
14 sub-divided into those which are potentially offensive and those which
15 are not..SS Options The options are as follows:
16 -a Choose from all lists of maxims, both offensive and not. (See
18 the -o option for more information on offensive fortunes.)
19 -c Show the cookie file from which the fortune came.
21 -e Consider all fortune files to be of equal size (see discussion
23 below on multiple files).
24 -f Print out the list of files which would be searched, but don't
26 print a fortune.
27 -l Long dictums only. See -n on how ``long'' is defined in this
29 sense.
30 -m pattern
32 Print out all fortunes which match the basic regular expression
33 pattern. The syntax of these expressions depends on how your
34 system defines re_comp(3) or regcomp(3), but it should neverthe‐
35 less be similar to the syntax used in grep(1).
36 The fortunes are output to standard output, while the names of
38 the file from which each fortune comes are printed to standard
39 error. Either or both can be redirected; if standard output is
40 redirected to a file, the result is a valid fortunes database
41 file. If standard error is also redirected to this file, the
42 result is still valid, but there will be ``bogus'' fortunes,
43 i.e. the filenames themselves, in parentheses. This can be use‐
44 ful if you wish to remove the gathered matches from their origi‐
45 nal files, since each filename-record will precede the records
46 from the file it names.
47 -n length
49 Set the longest fortune length (in characters) considered to be
50 ``short'' (the default is 160). All fortunes longer than this
51 are considered ``long''. Be careful! If you set the length too
52 short and ask for short fortunes, or too long and ask for long
53 ones, fortune goes into a never-ending thrash loop.
54 -o Choose only from potentially offensive aphorisms. The -o option
56 is ignored if a fortune directory is specified.
57 Please, please, please request a potentially offensive fortune
59 if and only if you believe, deep in your heart, that you are
60 willing to be offended. (And that you'll just quit using -o
61 rather than give us grief about it, okay?)
62 ... let us keep in mind the basic governing philosophy of The
64 Brotherhood, as handsomely summarized in these words: we believe
65 in healthy, hearty laughter -- at the expense of the whole human
66 race, if needs be. Needs be.
67 --H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes"
68 -s Short apothegms only. See -n on which fortunes are considered
70 ``short''.
71 -i Ignore case for -m patterns.
73 -w Wait before termination for an amount of time calculated from
75 the number of characters in the message. This is useful if it
76 is executed as part of the logout procedure to guarantee that
77 the message can be read before the screen is cleared.
78 The user may specify alternate sayings. You can specify a specific
80 file, a directory which contains one or more files, or the special word
81 all which says to use all the standard databases. Any of these may be
82 preceded by a percentage, which is a number n between 0 and 100 inclu‐
83 sive, followed by a %. If it is, there will be a n percent probability
84 that an adage will be picked from that file or directory. If the per‐
85 centages do not sum to 100, and there are specifications without per‐
86 centages, the remaining percent will apply to those files and/or direc‐
87 tories, in which case the probability of selecting from one of them
88 will be based on their relative sizes.
89 As an example, given two databases funny and not-funny, with funny
91 twice as big (in number of fortunes, not raw file size), saying
92 fortune funny not-funny
94 will get you fortunes out of funny two-thirds of the time. The command
96 fortune 90% funny 10% not-funny
98 will pick out 90% of its fortunes from funny (the ``10% not-funny'' is
100 unnecessary, since 10% is all that's left).
101 The -e option says to consider all files equal; thus
103 fortune -e funny not-funny
105 is equivalent to
107 fortune 50% funny 50% not-funny
109 This fortune also supports the BSD method of appending ``-o'' to data‐
111 base names to specify offensive fortunes. However this is not how for‐
112 tune stores them: offensive fortunes are stored in a separate directory
113 without the ``-o'' infix. A plain name (i.e., not a path to a file or
114 directory) that ends in ``-o'' will be assumed to be an offensive data‐
115 base, and will have its suffix stripped off and be searched in the
116 offensive directory (even if the neither of the -a or -o options were
117 specified). This feature is not only for backwards-compatibility, but
118 also to allow users to distinguish between inoffensive and offensive
119 databases of the same name.
120 For example, assuming there is a database named definitions in both the
122 inoffensive and potentially offensive collections, then the following
123 command will select an inoffensive definition 90% of the time, and a
124 potentially offensive definition for the remaining 10%:
125 fortune 90% definitions definitions-o
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129 Note: these are the defaults as defined at compile time.
130 /home/shlomif/apps/to-del-fortune/share/games/fortunes
132 Directory for innoffensive fortunes.
133 /home/shlomif/apps/to-del-fortune/share/games/fortunes/off
134 Directory for offensive fortunes.
135 If a particular set of fortunes is particularly unwanted, there is an
137 easy solution: delete the associated .dat file. This leaves the data
138 intact, should the file later be wanted, but since fortune no longer
139 finds the pointers file, it ignores the text file.
140
142 The division of fortunes into offensive and non-offensive by directory,
143 rather than via the `-o' file infix, is not 100% compatible with origi‐
144 nal BSD fortune. Although the `-o' infix is recognised as referring to
145 an offensive database, the offensive database files still need to be in
146 a separate directory. The workaround, of course, is to move the `-o'
147 files into the offensive directory (with or without renaming), and to
148 use the -a option.
149 The supplied fortune databases have been attacked, in order to correct
151 orthographical and grammatical errors, and particularly to reduce
152 redundancy and repetition and redundancy. But especially to avoid rep‐
153 etitiousness. This has not been a complete success. In the process,
154 some fortunes may also have been lost.
155 The fortune databases are now divided into a larger number of smaller
157 files, some organized by format (poetry, definitions), and some by con‐
158 tent (religion, politics). There are parallel files in the main direc‐
159 tory and in the offensive files directory (e.g., fortunes/definitions
160 and fortunes/off/definitions). Not all the potentially offensive for‐
161 tunes are in the offensive fortunes files, nor are all the fortunes in
162 the offensive files potentially offensive, probably, though a strong
163 attempt has been made to achieve greater consistency. Also, a better
164 division might be made.
165
167 This version of fortune is based on the NetBSD fortune 1.4, but with a
168 number of bug fixes and enhancements.
169 The original fortune/strfile format used a single file; strfile read
171 the text file and converted it to null-delimited strings, which were
172 stored after the table of pointers in the .dat file. By NetBSD fortune
173 1.4, this had changed to two separate files: the .dat file was only the
174 header (the table of pointers, plus flags; see strfile.h), and the text
175 strings were left in their own file. The potential problem with this
176 is that text file and header file may get out of synch, but the advan‐
177 tage is that the text files can be easily edited without resorting to
178 unstr, and there is a potential savings in disk space (on the assump‐
179 tion that the sysadmin kept both .dat file with strings and the text
180 file).
181 Many of the enhancements made over the NetBSD version assumed a Linux
183 system, and thus caused it to fail under other platforms, including
184 BSD. The source code has since been made more generic, and currently
185 works on SunOS 4.x as well as Linux, with support for more platforms
186 expected in the future. Note that some bugs were inadvertently discov‐
187 ered and fixed during this process.
188 At a guess, a great many people have worked on this program, many with‐
190 out leaving attributions.
191
193 re_comp(3), regcomp(3), strfile(1), unstr(1)
194BSD Experimental 19 April 94 [May. 97] FORTUNE(6)