Fortune Mini-HOWTO (english)
  Walter Harms
  Version 0.01, 19.05.2004

  How to use use fortune to generate cookies.
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  Table of Contents


  1. Introduction
  2. Usage of fortune, strfile and unstr
     2.1 Fortune
     2.2 generating a fortune database
     2.3 unstr

  3. other files to have fun with
  4. remarks


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  1.  Introduction

  When a user logs into a system normally the /etc/motd is displayed. (
  You can disable this by creating the file ~/.hushlogin.) You will be
  greeted by something like ''welcome to 127.0.0.1''. That is boring.

  Here comes ''fortune'' to the rescue. The package comes with 3
  programs: fortune,strfile and unstr.


  2.  Usage of fortune, strfile and unstr

  The programs have clear distinguished jobs: presentation, assembly and
  disassembly of the fortune databases.


  2.1.  Fortune

  fortune is the presenter program. A simple application is to call the
  program in the crontab and modify the /etc/motd. e.g.:

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   */10 * * * * /usr/bin/fortune >/etc/motd

  To select a given database with quotes simply add the database as argument.

   */10 * * * * /usr/bin/fortune myquotes >/etc/motd
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  You can also specify more than one database file. Then fortune will
  consider both files equally often.

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  > fortune  myquotes  startrek
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  Some people like some quotes more than others. So your can manipulate
  the equilibrium by adding probabilities.



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  > fortune  90% myquotes  10% startrek
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  fortune has some additional command line switches but its beyond the
  scope of this document to explain them. check the man page instead.


  2.2.  generating a fortune database

  Now we come to terms. Pick a list of quotes. There are several
  sources.  Of cause the Internet will provide you with a long list.
  Choose quotes you like they will appear regularly now. Collect the
  quotes in one file.  Every quote separated with a line containing a
  single  % e.g.:

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  quote 1
  %
  quote 2
  %
  quote 3
  %
  quote 5
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  This is not a very effective way. Therefor is the strfile program.It
  will process the ASCII-file and add a binary helper. The <myquotes>
  will accompanied by <myquotes>.dat .

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  > strfile myquotes
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  The <myquotes>.dat will by copied into the directory where the
  datafiles are stored.  This is usually /usr/share/fortune. Check the
  installation with:

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  >fortune myquotes
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  2.3.  unstr

  This is what the man-page says:

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  The purpose of unstr is to undo the work of strfile.  It prints out the
  strings contained in the file source_file in the order that they are
  listed in the header file source_file.dat to standard output.  It is
  possible to create sorted versions of input files by using -o when strfile
  is run and then using unstr to dump them out in the table order.
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  3.  other files to have fun with

  An other possible target is .signature.  Any selfrespecting
  mailprogram will add that to an outgoing mail.


  4.  remarks

  The patchnames mentioned here are based on the actual fortune package.
  Distribution may change the place to somewhere.

  Beside fortune there are several other programs that select random
  quotes from a database.

  Be carefull when choosing quotes. There are people who take them
  serious like:

  ______________________________________________________________________
  ====### legal notice ###====-------------------------------------------
  Microsoft Network is prohibited from redistributing this work in any form, in
  whole or in part.  License to distribute this post is available to Microsoft
  for $499.  Posting without permission constitutes an agreement to these terms.
  walter@linux:~/bericht/fortune> fortune myquotes
  "You  have the right to remain silent, but I wouldn't encourage you to do
   so.  Anything you say will be taken down, altered to my satisfaction and
   used in a court of law to send you down for a good many years!"
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