Fortune databases

Databases for the fortune command.

What is this?

Per Wikipedia,

fortune is a program that displays a pseudorandom message from a database of quotations that first appeared in Version 7 Unix.

Here's an example:

$ fortune
Fortune favors the lucky.

This repo contains databases for use with the fortune command.

Is there an online demo?

Why yes, I did indeed spend way too much time customizing a Linux emulator that runs inside your browser and lets you see the results. It looks like this:

What fortune databases are here?

1. THE INVISIBLE STATES OF AMERICA, some of my favorite microfiction from @ThePatanoiac
2. tweetfortune.py, a script to build fortune databases from a public Twitter timeline

How do I use this?

1. Install fortune. This can be done on macOS with Homebrew or pkgin, or on Linux, BSD, and most other Unix variants with the standard package manager.

2. Build one of the databases here. Fortune's strfile can assemble the text files in this repo into databases:

    $ strfile invisiblestates/invisiblestates
   "invisiblestates/invisiblestates.dat" created
   There were 50 strings
   Longest string: 210 bytes
   Shortest string: 172 bytes
   

3. Run fortune against your newly built database:

    $ fortune invisiblestates/invisiblestates | fold -w 80 -s
   RUSH: Abandoned riverboats have been made into cathedrals by mermaids. There
   are giant toads here, whose legs are served with rose mustard.
   - THE INVISIBLE STATES OF AMERICA
   A TOURISM GUIDE BY UEL ARAMCHEK
   

What is this for?

I think it is nice to put in your .bashrc or equivalent shell startup script.

What other great tastes go great with this one?

• fold -w 80 -s will insert line breaks after a space at or before 80 characters. This command is actually part of POSIX so should be on any Unix system.
• lolcatjs makes pretty colors.

Here's an example of those two in action:

Other cool fortune databases

• The top 10,000 /r/ShowerThoughts posts