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FORTUNE(6)		     UNIX Reference Manual		    FORTUNE(6)

NAME
       fortune - print a random, hopefully interesting, adage

SYNOPSIS
       fortune [-acefilosw] [-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 neverthe‐
	      less 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 use‐
	      ful if you wish to remove the gathered matches from their origi‐
	      nal  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.

       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	inclu‐
       sive, 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  per‐
       centages	 do  not sum to 100, and there are specifications without per‐
       centages, the remaining percent will apply to those files and/or direc‐
       tories,	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

       This fortune also supports the BSD method of appending ``-o'' to	 data‐
       base names to specify offensive fortunes.  However this is not how for‐
       tune stores them: offensive fortunes are stored in a seperate directory
       without	the ``-o'' infix.  A plain name (i.e., not a path to a file or
       directory) that ends in ``-o'' will be assumed to be an offensive data‐
       base,  and  will	 have  its  suffix stripped off and be searched in the
       offensive directory (even if the neither of the -a or -o	 options  were
       specified).   This feature is not only for backwards-compatibility, but
       also to allow users to distinguish between  inoffensive	and  offensive
       databases of the same name.

       For example, assuming there is a database named definitions in both the
       inoffensive and potentially offensive collections, then	the  following
       command	will  select  an inoffensive definition 90% of the time, and a
       potentially offensive definition for the remaining 10%:

	      fortune 90% definitions definitions-o

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 division of fortunes into offensive and non-offensive by directory,
       rather than via the `-o' file infix, is not 100% compatible with origi‐
       nal  BSD fortune. Although the `-o' infix is recognised as referring to
       an offensive database, the offensive database files still need to be in
       a  separate  directory.	The workaround, of course, is to move the `-o'
       files into the offensive directory (with or without renaming),  and  to
       use the -a option.

       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 rep‐
       etitiousness.  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 con‐
       tent (religion, politics).  There are parallel files in the main direc‐
       tory and in the offensive files directory  (e.g.,  fortunes/definitions
       and  fortunes/off/definitions).	Not all the potentially offensive for‐
       tunes 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.

HISTORY
       This  version of fortune is based on the NetBSD fortune 1.4, but with a
       number of bug fixes and enhancements.

       The original fortune/strfile format used a single  file;	 strfile  read
       the  text  file	and converted it to null-delimited strings, which were
       stored after the table of pointers in the .dat file.  By NetBSD fortune
       1.4, this had changed to two separate files: the .dat file was only the
       header (the table of pointers, plus flags; see strfile.h), and the text
       strings	were  left in their own file.  The potential problem with this
       is that text file and header file may get out of synch, but the	advan‐
       tage  is	 that the text files can be easily edited without resorting to
       unstr, and there is a potential savings in disk space (on  the  assump‐
       tion  that  the	sysadmin kept both .dat file with strings and the text
       file).

       Many of the enhancements made over the NetBSD version assumed  a	 Linux
       system,	and  thus  caused  it to fail under other platforms, including
       BSD.  The source code has since been made more generic,	and  currently
       works  on  SunOS	 4.x as well as Linux, with support for more platforms
       expected in the future.	Note that some bugs were inadvertently discov‐
       ered and fixed during this process.

       At a guess, a great many people have worked on this program, many with‐
       out leaving attributions.

SEE ALSO
       re_comp(3), regcomp(3), strfile(1), unstr(1)

BSD Experimental	     19 April 94 [May. 97]		    FORTUNE(6)
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