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FORTUNE
!!!FORTUNE
NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
FILES
BUGS
HISTORY
SEE ALSO
----
!!NAME


fortune - print a random, hopefully interesting, adage
!!SYNOPSIS


__fortune__ [[__-aefilosw__] [[__-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.)


__-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,


__-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
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''


This fortune also supports the BSD method of appending
``-o'' to database names to specify offensive fortunes.
However this is __not__ how fortune 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 database, 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 inoffensive
fortunes


/usr/share/games/fortunes/off - Directory for offensive
fortunes


/usr/local/share/games/fortunes - Local directory for
inoffensive fortunes


/usr/local/share/games/fortunes/off - Local 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 original BSD fortune. Although the `-o'
infix is recognised as referring to an offensive database,
the offensive database files still need to be in a seperate
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 repititiousness. 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.
!!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 advantage is
that the text files can be easily edited without resorting
to unstr, and there is a potential savings in disk space (on
the assumption 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 inadvertantly
discovered and fixed during this process.


At a guess, a great many people have worked on this program,
many without leaving attributions.
!!SEE ALSO


re_comp(3), regcomp(3), strfile(1),
unstr(1)
----
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Last edited on Tuesday, June 4, 2002 12:30:49 am by "perry"
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