Random Sayings - General Wisdom
CHS Systems
2009-01-31
Version: 1.0

General wisdom variant of the Unix fortune command line program.

fortune is a simple program that displays a random message from a database of quotations. Most distributions of fortune are bundled with a collection of themed files, containing sayings like those found on fortune cookies (hence the name), quotations from famous people, jokes, or poetry. fortune is predominantly found on Unix-like systems, but clients for other platforms exist as well. Often, users on text-mode Unix terminals will place this command into either their .profile or .logout files to display them at logon and logout, respectively. It is also used to generate text input for certain XScreenSaver modes.

Most Unix systems use a roughly equivalent set of fortunes. The fortunes dispensed are slanted heavily toward the user base of Unix, and thus contain many obscure jokes about computer science and computer programming. Other favoured sources include quotations from science fiction (Star Trek, The Cyberiad, Doctor Who, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, etc.), and the writings of Ambrose Bierce and Dave Barry. Most fortune collections also include a wide variety of more conventionally-sourced quotations, jokes, and other short passages. A few distributions include so-called "offensive" dicta, which require the -a or -o options to be passed for viewing (see the section "Common options" below).

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