xcowsay(6)

1xcowsay(6)                       Games Manual                       xcowsay(6)
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NAME

6       xcowsay - Display a cute cow and speech bubble.
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SYNOPSIS

9       xcowsay [-h] [-t time] [-r speed] [-d] [-f font] [text]...
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DESCRIPTION

12       Display  a  cow  with a speech bubble containing some text.  If text is
13       specified it will be displayed in the bubble.  Otherwise the text  will
14       be  read  from the standard input and displayed when end of file is en‐
15       countered.
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17       The cow is displayed for either a fixed amount of time, or an amount of
18       time calculated from the size of the text.  Click on the cow to dismiss
19       it immediately.
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21       If xcowsay is started with --daemon it will fork away from the terminal
22       and   run   in  daemon  mode.   The  daemon  provides  a  DBus  service
23       uk.me.doof.Cowsay that responds to ShowCow requests.   The  daemon  can
24       queue up any number of requests and displays them in order.
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26       When  xcowsay starts it checks to see if a daemon is running, and if it
27       is, sends a ShowCow request and returns immediately.  Otherwise xcowsay
28       will block until the cow has disappeared.
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CONFIGURATION FILE

31       xcowsay  reads a configuration file on startup.  The configuration file
32       can be stored in the XDG compliant location  $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xcowsayrc
33       (which  will default to $HOME/.config/xcowsayrc) or in your home direc‐
34       tory at $HOME/.xcowsayrc.  If the --config=FILE command line option  is
35       passed FILE will be processed after your personal configuration file.
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37       The  configuration  file  consists  of  'option = value' pairs, one per
38       line.  The valid keys are given in the next section.  For example,  the
39       following line sets display time to 10 seconds:
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41              display_time = 10000
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43       The  character  '#'  begins  a comment which lasts until the end of the
44       line.
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46       Values containing spaces should be enclosed in quotes.  For example:
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48              font = "mono 28"
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OPTIONS

51       Note that these options override any settings in the config file.
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53       -h, --help
54              Display usage information.
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56       -t time, --time=time
57              Display the cow for time seconds.  This overrides any value  set
58              for  reading_speed.  Setting time to zero displays the cow until
59              it is clicked.  The corresponding config  file  option  is  dis‐
60              play_time.  This can also be set to a fractional value like 0.5.
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62       -r speed, --reading-speed=speed
63              Number  of  milliseconds to display the cow for each word in the
64              input text.  This is clamped to a  minimum  of  min_display_time
65              and  a  maximum  of max_display_time.  The defaults are 1 second
66              and 30 seconds respectively.  The corresponding config file  op‐
67              tion is reading_speed.
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69       -f font, --font=font
70              Font  for  the  speech bubble text.  Accepts Pango font strings.
71              The corresponding config file option is font.
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73       -d file, --dream=file
74              Display an image instead of  text  in  the  cow's  bubble.   The
75              dream_time  config file option sets the numer of milliseconds to
76              display the image for.  The default is 10 seconds.
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78       --think
79              Display a thought bubble instead of a speech bubble.
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81       --daemon
82              Run xcowsay in daemon mode if DBus  support  has  been  enabled.
83              See the DESCRIPTION section above for more information.
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85       --cow-size=size
86              Size  of  the  cow  image.   Current  choices are small, med, or
87              large.  The corresponding config file option is cow_size.
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89       --image=file
90              Use a different image instead of  the  cow.   The  corresponding
91              config file option is alt_image.
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93       --monitor=N
94              Make the cow appear on monitor N.
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96       --at=X,Y
97              Force  that  cow to appear at screen location (X,Y).  The config
98              file options are at_x and at_y.
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100       --bubble-at=X,Y
101              Change position of bubble relative to where  it  would  normally
102              appear.   This  is  most useful when combined with the alt_image
103              option to create your own characters.  The config  file  options
104              are bubble_x and bubble_y.
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106       --no-wrap
107              Disable  word wrapping when the bubble is too wide to fit on the
108              screen.  The config file option wrap can be set to true or false
109              to set this explicitly.
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111       -l, --left
112              Make  the  bubble appear on the left hand side of the cow.  This
113              is useful if you are using your own image.
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115       --debug
116              Print messages about what xcowsay is doing.  Useful for  finding
117              out why the daemon fails.
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119       --release
120              Close window on release event instead of press.  The correspond‐
121              ing config file option is close_event=button-release-event.
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123       -v, --version
124              Print version information.
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AUTHOR

127       Written by Nick Gasson.
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REPORTING BUGS

130       Report  all  bugs  to  nick@nickg.me.uk    The  xcowsay  home  page  is
131       <http://www.doof.me.uk/xcowsay>
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