4.4BSD/usr/share/man/cat6/fortune.0

FORTUNE(6)                   BSD Reference Manual                   FORTUNE(6)

NNAAMMEE
     ffoorrttuunnee - print a random, hopefully interesting, adage

SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
     ffoorrttuunnee [--aaeeffiilloossww] [--mm _p_a_t_t_e_r_n] [[_N_%] _f_i_l_e_/_d_i_r_/_a_l_l]

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
     When ffoorrttuunnee 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.  The options are as follows:

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

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

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

     --ll    Long dictums only.

     --mm    Print out all fortunes which match the regular expression _p_a_t_t_e_r_n.
           See regex(3) for a description of patterns.

     --oo    Choose only from potentially offensive aphorisms.  PPlleeaassee,, pplleeaassee,,
           pplleeaassee rreeqquueesstt aa ppootteennttiiaallllyy ooffffeennssiivvee ffoorrttuunnee iiff aanndd oonnllyy iiff yyoouu
           bbeelliieevvee,, ddeeeepp ddoowwnn iinn yyoouurr hheeaarrtt,, tthhaatt yyoouu aarree wwiilllliinngg ttoo bbee ooff--
           ffeennddeedd..  ((AAnndd tthhaatt iiff yyoouu aarree,, yyoouu''llll jjuusstt qquuiitt uussiinngg --oo rraatthheerr
           tthhaann ggiivvee uuss ggrriieeff aabboouutt iitt,, ookkaayy??))

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

     --ss    Short apothegms only.

     --ii    Ignore case for --mm patterns.

     --ww    Wait before termination for an amount of time calculated from the
           number of characters in the message.  This is useful if it is exe-
           cuted 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 _a_l_l
     which says to use all the standard databases.  Any of these may be pre-
     ceded 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 re-
     maining 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 _f_u_n_n_y and _n_o_t_-_f_u_n_n_y, with _f_u_n_n_y twice
     as big, saying

           fortune funny not-funny


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

           fortune 90% funny 10% not-funny

     will pick out 90% of its fortunes from _f_u_n_n_y (the ``10% not-funny'' is
     unnecessary, since 10% is all that's left).  The --ee option says to con-
     sider all files equal; thus

           fortune -e

     is equivalent to

           fortune 50% funny 50% notEm -funny

FFIILLEESS
     /usr/share/games/fortune

SSEEEE AALLSSOO
     regex(3),  regcmp(3),  strfile(8)

4th Berkeley Distribution        May 31, 1993                                2