Scripting question concerning random selection of a phrase from a database
 

I am trying to set up a script that randomly selects from a list of phrases such as "I'm meltiiing..." or "All good things must come to an end" every time I shut down.

So far, I have this, roughly (going from memory):
What I want to do is to have it retrieve something from another file to echo before it shuts down.

I appreciate any help,

cjay

Investigate the fortune program, which is designed for this purpose. It also comes with a huge colection of phrases.

If you want your own customized quotes and not fortune's bundled ones, you can make your own.
Just create a file (e.g. 'myquotes') in /usr/share/fortune/ with formatting and line-separators similar to the ones in existing fortune files
Create a dat file by running strfile myquotes myquotes.dat
Call it from fortune by running fortune myquotes
See this link for details.