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