NAME

       xcowsay - Display a cute cow and speech bubble.

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

       Display a cow with a speech bubble containing some text. If text is specified it will be displayed in the
       bubble.  Otherwise  the  text  will  be  read  from  the standard input and displayed when end of file is
       encountered.

       The cow is displayed for either a fixed amount of time, or an amount of time calculated from the size  of
       the text. Click on the cow to dismiss it immediately.

       If  xcowsay  is  started  with  --daemon  it will fork away from the terminal and run in daemon mode. The
       daemon provides a DBus service uk.me.doof.Cowsay that responds to ShowCow requests. The daemon can  queue
       up any number of requests and displays them in order.

       When  xcowsay  starts  it checks to see if a daemon is running, and if it is, sends a ShowCow request and
       returns immediately. Otherwise xcowsay will block until the cow has disappeared.

CONFIGURATION FILE

       xcowsay reads a configuration file on startup.  The configuration file can be stored in the XDG compliant
       location $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xcowsayrc (which will default  to  $HOME/.config/xcowsayrc)  or  in  your  home
       directory at $HOME/.xcowsayrc.  If the --config=FILE command line option is passed FILE will be processed
       after your personal configuration file.

       The configuration file consists of 'option = value' pairs, one per line.  The valid keys are given in the
       next section. For example, the following line sets display time to 10 seconds:

              display_time = 10000

       The character '#' begins a comment which lasts until the end of the line.

       Values containing spaces should be enclosed in quotes.  For example:

              font = "mono 28"

OPTIONS

       Note that these options override any settings in the config file.

       -h, --help
              Display usage information.

       -t time, --time=time
              Display the cow for time seconds. This overrides any value set for reading_speed.  Setting time to
              zero displays the cow until it is clicked.  The corresponding config file option is display_time.

       -r speed, --reading-speed=speed
              Number  of  milliseconds  to display the cow for each word in the input text. This is clamped to a
              minimum of min_display_time and a maximum of max_display_time.  The defaults are 1 second  and  30
              seconds respectively. The corresponding config file option is reading_speed.

       -f font, --font=font
              Font  for the speech bubble text. Accepts Pango font strings. The corresponding config file option
              is font.

       -d file, --dream=file
              Display an image instead of text in the cow's bubble. The dream_time config file option  sets  the
              numer of milliseconds to display the image for. The default is 10 seconds.

       --think
              Display a thought bubble instead of a speech bubble.

       --daemon
              Run  xcowsay  in  daemon  mode  if  DBus  support  has  been enabled. See the description for more
              information.

       --cow-size=size
              Size of the cow image.  Current choices are small, med, or large.  The corresponding  config  file
              option is cow_size.

       --image=file
              Use a different image instead of the cow.  The corresponding config file option is alt_image.

       --monitor=N
              Make the cow appear on monitor N.

       --at=X,Y
              Force that cow to appear at screen location (X,Y).  The config file options are at_x and at_y.

       --bubble-at=X,Y
              Change  position  of  bubble relative to where it would normally appear.  This is most useful when
              combined with the alt_image option to create your own characters.  The  config  file  options  are
              bubble_x and bubble_y.

       --no-wrap
              Disable  word  wrapping  when the bubble is too wide to fit on the screen.  The config file option
              wrap can be set to true or false to set this explicitly.

       -l, --left
              Make the bubble appear on the left hand side of the cow.  This is useful if you are using your own
              image.

       --debug
              Print messages about what xcowsay is doing. Useful for finding out why the daemon fails.

       --release
              Close window on release  event  instead  of  press.   The  corresponding  config  file  option  is
              close_event=button-release-event.

       -v, --version
              Print version information.

AUTHOR

       Written by Nick Gasson.

REPORTING BUGS

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

SEE ALSO

       cowsay(6)

                                                                                                      xcowsay(6)