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31 .\" @(#)fortune.6 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
32 .\" $FreeBSD: src/games/fortune/fortune/fortune.6,v 1.9.2.6 2001/12/14 14:26:32 ru Exp $
33 .\" $DragonFly: src/games/fortune/fortune/fortune.6,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:25:24 dillon Exp $
40 .Nd "print a random, hopefully interesting, adage"
52 is run with no arguments it prints out a random epigram.
53 Epigrams are divided into several categories, where each category
54 is subdivided into those which are potentially offensive and those
56 The options are as follows:
59 Choose from all lists of maxims, both offensive and not.
62 option for more information on offensive fortunes.)
64 Enable additional debugging output.
65 Specify this option multiple times for more verbose output.
66 Only available if compiled with -DDEBUG.
68 Consider all fortune files to be of equal size (see discussion below
71 Print out the list of files which would be searched, but don't
76 Print out all fortunes which match the regular expression
80 for a description of patterns.
82 Choose only from potentially offensive aphorisms.
84 Please, please, please request a potentially offensive fortune if and
85 only if you believe, deep down in your heart, that you are willing
87 (And that if you are not willing, you'll just quit using
90 grief about it, okay?)
92 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
93 \&... let us keep in mind the basic governing philosophy
94 of The Brotherhood, as handsomely summarized in these words:
95 we believe in healthy, hearty laughter -- at the expense of
96 the whole human race, if needs be.
98 .Bd -ragged -offset indent-two -compact
99 --H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes"
103 Short apothegms only.
109 Wait before termination for an amount of time calculated from the
110 number of characters in the message.
111 This is useful if it is executed as part of the logout procedure
112 to guarantee that the message can be read before the screen is cleared.
115 The user may specify alternate sayings.
116 You can specify a specific file, a directory which contains one or
117 more files, or the special word
119 which says to use all the standard databases.
120 Any of these may be preceded by a percentage, which is a number
122 between 0 and 100 inclusive, followed by a
124 If it is, there will be a
126 percent probability that an adage will be picked from that file
128 If the percentages do not sum to 100, and there are specifications
129 without percentages, the remaining percent will apply to those files
130 and/or directories, in which case the probability of selecting from
131 one of them will be based on their relative sizes.
133 As an example, given two databases
140 .Bd -literal -offset indent
141 fortune funny not-funny
144 will get you fortunes out of
146 two-thirds of the time.
148 .Bd -literal -offset indent
149 fortune 90% funny 10% not-funny
152 will pick out 90% of its fortunes from
156 is unnecessary, since 10% is all that's left).
159 option says to consider all files equal;
161 .Bd -literal -offset indent
162 fortune -e funny not-funny
166 .Bd -literal -offset indent
167 fortune 50% funny 50% not-funny
170 .Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
171 .It Pa /usr/games/fortune
173 .It Pa /usr/share/games/fortune/*
174 the fortunes databases (those files ending