Ubuntu Manpage: fortune - print a random, hopefully interesting, adage

NAME

       fortune - print a random, hopefully interesting, adage

SYNOPSIS

       fortune [-acefilosuw] [-n length] [ -m pattern] [[n%] file/dir/all]

DESCRIPTION

When fortune is run with no arguments it prints out a random epigram. Epigrams are divided
into several categories, where each category is sub-divided into those which are
potentially offensive and those which are not.

Options
The options are as follows:

-a Choose from all lists of maxims, both offensive and not. (See the -o option for
more information on offensive fortunes.)

-c Show the cookie file from which the fortune came.

-e Consider all fortune files to be of equal size (see discussion below on multiple
files).

-f Print out the list of files which would be searched, but don't print a fortune.

-l Long dictums only. See -n on how ``long'' is defined in this sense.

-m pattern
Print out all fortunes which match the basic regular expression pattern. The
syntax of these expressions depends on how your system defines re_comp(3) or
regcomp(3), but it should nevertheless be similar to the syntax used in grep(1).

The fortunes are output to standard output, while the names of the file from which
each fortune comes are printed to standard error. Either or both can be
redirected; if standard output is redirected to a file, the result is a valid
fortunes database file. If standard error is also redirected to this file, the
result is still valid, but there will be ``bogus'' fortunes, i.e. the filenames
themselves, in parentheses. This can be useful if you wish to remove the gathered
matches from their original files, since each filename-record will precede the
records from the file it names.

-n length
Set the longest fortune length (in characters) considered to be ``short'' (the
default is 160). All fortunes longer than this are considered ``long''. Be
careful! If you set the length too short and ask for short fortunes, or too long
and ask for long ones, fortune goes into a never-ending thrash loop.

-o Choose only from potentially offensive aphorisms. The -o option is ignored if a
fortune directory is specified.

Please, please, please request a potentially offensive fortune if and only if you
believe, deep in your heart, that you are willing to be offended. (And that you'll
just quit using -o rather than give us grief about it, okay?)

... let us keep in mind the basic governing philosophy of The Brotherhood, as
handsomely summarized in these words: we believe in healthy, hearty laughter -- at
the expense of the whole human race, if needs be. Needs be.
--H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes"

-s Short apothegms only. See -n on which fortunes are considered ``short''.

-i Ignore case for -m patterns.

-w Wait before termination for an amount of time calculated from the number of
characters in the message. This is useful if it is executed as part of the logout
procedure to guarantee that the message can be read before the screen is cleared.

-u Don't translate UTF-8 fortunes to the locale when searching or translating.

The user may specify alternate sayings. You can specify a specific file, a directory
which contains one or more files, or the special word all which says to use all the
standard databases. Any of these may be preceded by a percentage, which is a number n
between 0 and 100 inclusive, followed by a %. If it is, there will be a n percent
probability that an adage will be picked from that file or directory. If the percentages
do not sum to 100, and there are specifications without percentages, the remaining percent
will apply to those files and/or directories, in which case the probability of selecting
from one of them will be based on their relative sizes.

As an example, given two databases funny and not-funny, with funny twice as big (in number
of fortunes, not raw file size), saying

fortune funny not-funny

will get you fortunes out of funny two-thirds of the time. The command

fortune 90% funny 10% not-funny

will pick out 90% of its fortunes from funny (the ``10% not-funny'' is unnecessary, since
10% is all that's left).

The -e option says to consider all files equal; thus

fortune -e funny not-funny

is equivalent to

fortune 50% funny 50% not-funny

FILES

       Note: these are the defaults as defined at compile time.

       /usr/share/games/fortunes
              Directory for innoffensive fortunes.
       /usr/share/games/fortunes/off
              Directory for offensive fortunes.

       If  a  particular  set  of  fortunes  is particularly unwanted, there is an easy solution:
       delete the associated .dat file.  This leaves the data intact, should the  file  later  be
       wanted, but since fortune no longer finds the pointers file, it ignores the text file.

BUGS

       The  supplied fortune databases have been attacked, in order to correct orthographical and
       grammatical errors, and particularly to reduce redundancy and repetition  and  redundancy.
       But  especially  to  avoid repetitiousness.  This has not been a complete success.  In the
       process, some fortunes may also have been lost.

       The fortune databases are now  divided  into  a  larger  number  of  smaller  files,  some
       organized  by  format  (poetry,  definitions),  and  some by content (religion, politics).
       There are parallel files in the main directory and in the offensive files directory (e.g.,
       fortunes/definitions  and  fortunes/off/definitions).   Not  all the potentially offensive
       fortunes are in the offensive fortunes files, nor are all the fortunes  in  the  offensive
       files  potentially  offensive,  probably, though a strong attempt has been made to achieve
       greater consistency.  Also, a better division might be made.

       When passing files to fortune, directories must be specified by  absolute  pathnames,  and
       filenames   starting   with   a   dot   are   ignored.   See:  http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-
       bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=241888

HISTORY