Create fortune data file
May 24, 2009 by mohamed hanoosh
fortune is a utility for displaying random text items from a database. The data files for fortune is kept in the directory /usr/share/games/fortune by default. We can add our own data files to it.Suppose you want to display a random quote of Einstein whenever you type fortune einstein , as shown below.
For that you have to create a data file with quotes from Einstein, and a 'dat' file for getting a random item from the quotes. The procedure is as follows.
It's done. Just type fortune einstein and see the result
For more fun with displaying the text, check http://tech-hanoosh.blogspot.com/2009/05/cowsay-dialogues-by-cow-in-terminal.html
hash@ssl51:~$ fortune einstein
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
For that you have to create a data file with quotes from Einstein, and a 'dat' file for getting a random item from the quotes. The procedure is as follows.
Create a file containing the quotes (items to be displayed) such that each quote is seperated by '%' symbol.- Now you have to create a 'dat' file for obtaining random item. For that you can use a tool strfile. If you have fortune-mod installed then the tool will be available. Suppose the file created in lasst step is named einstein. To create the datafile, just type as follows
hash@ssl51:~$ strfile einstein
"einstein.dat" created
There were 14 strings
Longest string: 168 bytes
Shortest string: 41 bytes - Now move both files to /usr/share/games/fortune
hash@ssl51:~$ sudo mv einstein /usr/share/games/fortunes/
[sudo] password for hash:
hash@ssl51:~$ sudo mv einstein.dat /usr/share/games/fortunes/
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
%
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
%
"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
%
"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
%
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
%
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
%
"The only real valuable thing is intuition."
%
"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
%
"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
%
"God is subtle but he is not malicious."
%
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
%
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
%
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
%
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
It's done. Just type fortune einstein and see the result
hash@ssl51:~$ fortune einstein
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."