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35 .\" @(#)fortune.6 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
43 .Nd "print a random, hopefully interesting, adage"
55 is run with no arguments it prints out a random epigram.
56 Epigrams are divided into several categories, where each category
57 is subdivided into those which are potentially offensive and those
59 The options are as follows:
62 Choose from all lists of maxims, both offensive and not.
65 option for more information on offensive fortunes.)
67 Enable additional debugging output.
68 Specify this option multiple times for more verbose output.
69 Only available if compiled with -DDEBUG.
71 Consider all fortune files to be of equal size (see discussion below
74 Print out the list of files which would be searched, but don't
79 Print out all fortunes which match the regular expression
83 for a description of patterns.
85 Choose only from potentially offensive aphorisms.
87 Please, please, please request a potentially offensive fortune if and
88 only if you believe, deep down in your heart, that you are willing
90 (And that if you are not willing, you'll just quit using
93 grief about it, okay?)
95 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
96 \&... let us keep in mind the basic governing philosophy
97 of The Brotherhood, as handsomely summarized in these words:
98 we believe in healthy, hearty laughter -- at the expense of
99 the whole human race, if needs be.
101 .Bd -ragged -offset indent-two -compact
102 --H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes"
106 Short apothegms only.
112 Wait before termination for an amount of time calculated from the
113 number of characters in the message.
114 This is useful if it is executed as part of the logout procedure
115 to guarantee that the message can be read before the screen is cleared.
118 The user may specify alternate sayings.
119 You can specify a specific file, a directory which contains one or
120 more files, or the special word
122 which says to use all the standard databases.
123 Any of these may be preceded by a percentage, which is a number
125 between 0 and 100 inclusive, followed by a
127 If it is, there will be a
129 percent probability that an adage will be picked from that file
131 If the percentages do not sum to 100, and there are specifications
132 without percentages, the remaining percent will apply to those files
133 and/or directories, in which case the probability of selecting from
134 one of them will be based on their relative sizes.
136 As an example, given two databases
143 .Bd -literal -offset indent
144 fortune funny not-funny
147 will get you fortunes out of
149 two-thirds of the time.
151 .Bd -literal -offset indent
152 fortune 90% funny 10% not-funny
155 will pick out 90% of its fortunes from
159 is unnecessary, since 10% is all that's left).
162 option says to consider all files equal;
164 .Bd -literal -offset indent
165 fortune -e funny not-funny
169 .Bd -literal -offset indent
170 fortune 50% funny 50% not-funny
173 .Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
174 .It Pa /usr/games/fortune
176 .It Pa /usr/share/games/fortune/*
177 the fortunes databases (those files ending