I wish to display a cowsay message in every terminal window. The command I use is
fortune | cowsay
Any ideas how to make it appear whenever I start a new terminal session?
asked Dec 6, 2010 at 13:55
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6 Answers
Open the file
~/.bashrc(or/etc/bash.bashrcif it should work globally for all users).Add the following at the bottom of the file:
if [ -x /usr/games/cowsay -a -x /usr/games/fortune ]; then fortune | cowsay fi
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3Yes, "-x" tests if that file exists and is executable. For more information on the the
testprogram see its man page:man test([ ... ]is short fortest ...).– htorqueDec 6, 2010 at 17:03 -
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added
clearand then the above command to the end.profilefile as that is what is called on logins. Dec 17, 2020 at 7:06
BONUS: If you're using bash you can make a ~/.bash_logout file and it will execute that when you log out. Make sure to have it sleep for a second or so, or you'll never see it.
cowsay "See you later"; sleep 1
I would consider setting a limit to the size of the fortune command requested.
fortune -s | cowsay
This will produce at most 160 characters. This is a good size for a greeting, anything more than that and long fortunes will flood your terminal.
I use
fortune | cowsay -f `ls -1 /usr/share/cowsay/cows/ | sort -R | head -1` -n
This will display a random fortune using a random 'cow'. There's probably a better way to get a random 'cow', but this works for me just fine.
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1For Mac:
fortune | cowsay -f `ls -1 /usr/local/Cellar/cowsay/3.04/share/cows/*.cow | sort | head -1` -n– jibranOct 17, 2016 at 7:08 -
Whoa I knew mac was Unix-based, didn't realize it even had cowsay and stuff!! Jun 5, 2018 at 7:22
Better you use .bash_profile because .bashrc is also executed at commands like scp and they will fail silently if there is any output
I found a nice script on pastebin. currently using it.
I am using
cowsay Welcome to Bash Shell in .bashrc.
This will be prompt every time when you open the terminal.
