Using Fortune

Some tips for using the fortune command.

Install fortune

Install fortune on macOS

$ brew install fortune

Or a linux like Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install fortune

You can see where fortune installs its files by default by running the following command:

$ fortune -f

More fun output

Install some other tools to liven things up.

$ brew install cowsay lolcat

Then combine all of them for some fun output like this:

$ fortune seinfeldtoday | cowthink -n -d | lolcat -a -s 40

Create a set of fortunes

The fortune program typically comes with a set of fortunes, and you can install more. You can also just create your own with augury and place them into a folder.

So for instance, if we created a folder in our home dir:

$ mkdir ~/.fortunes

Then created some fortune files in there:

$ augury generate -c 0 seinfeldtoday ~/.fortunes/seinfeldtoday
$ augury generate -c 0 -l --remove-links shituserstories ~/.fortunes/shituserstories

Then you can run fortune with just those files:

$ fortune -f ~/.fortunes
100.00% /Users/claytron/.fortunes
    10.91% shituserstories
    89.09% seinfeldtoday

Shell startup

This is the whole reason we are here folks. I've had fortune running in my shell startup for years.

Let's add on from the example above. Put something like this in your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zprofile and you'll always have a laugh when you open a new terminal. The file you put this in is dependent on your shell and terminal, but that's outside the scope of this wiki.

function makeMeLaugh() {
  [ $(which fortune) ] || return 0

  local output

  if [ -d "$HOME/.fortunes" ]; then
    # Evenly pick from our fortunes
    output=$(fortune -e "$HOME/.fortunes")
  else
    # Otherwise any fortune will do
    output=$(fortune)
  fi

  # If cowsay is installed, have a dead cow think the fortune at the
  # default width set in augury of 72
  if [ $(which cowthink) ]; then
    output=$(cowthink -d -W 72 $output)
  fi

  # Add a bit of padding and show in the terminal.
  # Make it really fancy with lolcat or just print it out.
  if [ $(which lolcat) ]; then
    echo -e "\n$output\n"  | lolcat -a -s 80
  else
    echo -e "\n$output\n"
  fi
}

# Call it to output to the terminal
makeMeLaugh