fortune command not working

caldosh · 09-14-2002, 06:28 PM

ok .. hopefully this is an 'easy' question ....

I want to use the 'fortune' command again, but it doesn't seem to work.

I checked its location, and it's in /usr/games but that's all I knew where to look.

~caldosh

speck · 09-14-2002, 09:58 PM

At the console, try entering the full path to the executable:

/usr/games/fortune

"/usr/games" is probably not in you path, so just typing "fortune" at the console will return "command not found".

Speck

caldosh · 09-15-2002, 03:58 AM

thanks!

*grin* how do I get it into my path?

~caldosh

sandy · 09-15-2002, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by caldosh
thanks!

*grin* how do I get it into my path?

~caldosh

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/games will add /usr/games to your default path

caldosh · 09-15-2002, 08:58 AM

bingo!

thanks for the help

~caldosh

Mara · 09-15-2002, 09:43 AM

To make it permanent for all users add it to /etc/profile

caldosh · 09-15-2002, 01:48 PM

right .... where and how do I add the fortune path?

and while I'm at it ... how can I make the strfile work? I tried the same 'putting it into my path' (export blabla), but that doesnt' seem to work

~caldosh
who feels like she's in way over her head

Mara · 09-24-2002, 04:55 AM

Add a line
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/games
at the end of your /etc/profile
What do you mean by " how can I make the strfile work?"

caldosh · 09-24-2002, 04:30 PM

Quote:

What do you mean by " how can I make the strfile work?"

like 'fortune', 'strfile' isn't in my path .. but I figured I could just export it like fortune.

thanks though!

~caldosh

Bert · 09-24-2002, 05:25 PM

Here's a fun thing to do with fortune. Add these lines to your .bash_profile:

# If the .signature file exists, delete it

if [ -e $HOME/.signature ]; then
rm $HOME/.signature

fi

# When you log in, print the thought for the day on the console and add
# it to your .signature file for emails.

echo "Today's randomly generated thought:" >> .signature
/usr/games/fortune | tee -a .signature

Fun, fun, fun.

Bert

caldosh · 03-08-2003, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bert
Here's a fun thing to do with fortune. Add these lines to your .bash_profile:

# If the .signature file exists, delete it

if [ -e $HOME/.signature ]; then
rm $HOME/.signature

fi

# When you log in, print the thought for the day on the console and add
# it to your .signature file for emails.

echo "Today's randomly generated thought:" >> .signature
/usr/games/fortune | tee -a .signature

Fun, fun, fun.

Bert

I know it has been a long time since my last post, but I still have a question.

Thanks to a friend I've been able to change my distro from RedHat 8.0 to Debian (latest/unstable) ... but the cool signature script isn't working anymore ...

can someone help me?

Mara · 03-08-2003, 02:17 PM

Do you have /usr/games/fortune? Maybe it has a different location?

cuckoopint · 03-08-2003, 02:26 PM

Code:

whereis fortune  
fortune: /usr/games/fortune /usr/share/man/man6/fortune.6.gz

running debian testing

maybe its just not installed. how about try a 'apt-get install'?
also, use apt-cache to figure out all the different fortune files you can get. or maybe you dont have permission to run it....

cuckoopint · 03-08-2003, 02:29 PM

also, maybe fortune cannot find the files.
from the manpage:

Quote:

Note: these are the defaults as defined at compile time.

/usr/share/games/fortunes - Directory for inoffensive fortunes
/usr/share/games/fortunes/off - Directory for offensive fortunes
/usr/local/share/games/fortunes - Local directory for inoffensive for-
tunes
/usr/local/share/games/fortunes/off - Local directory for offensive
fortunes

caldosh · 03-08-2003, 02:38 PM

don't know what I did -- I prolly just forgot to restart X, I think

but my signature file is working beautifully again.

thanks for the help!