custom fortune files

MiniMe001 · 11-08-2004, 02:35 PM

this is bugging the hell out of me. I was going to make my own file to use with the fortune command, but I can't read the damn .dat files. At first, it looks like mpeg, but if I cilck on it, it looks like a spreadsheet. -_-' Can't open it with anything.

mjrich · 11-08-2004, 03:08 PM

You'll probably need to use the <strfile> command to create the random access dbase out of your standard text file, e.g. <strfile customfortunes>.

Have a quick read of the mini-howto at http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~flug/p...ies-HOWTO.html for more info

Cheers,

mj

MiniMe001 · 11-08-2004, 08:11 PM

uhhuh. Well, exactly what do I do with strfile??
Here's what I thought you meant:
make a text file with something like:
one
%
two
%
three
open a terminal and type: strfile myquotes.txt
HAH, yeah, that didn't work. So I added the >, thinking I was supposed to have that.
Nope.

So what do I do?

mjrich · 11-08-2004, 08:24 PM

What happened when you typed <strfile myquotes.txt> ...? Did it produce a file named myquotes.txt.dat ? If so, then you're on the right track. To fit in with the fortune format, you'll probably want to leave off the .txt extension, of course.

Then, after installing it with the correct permissions, try running <fortune myfortune>.

Cheers,

mj

MiniMe001 · 11-09-2004, 09:34 AM

syntax error near unexpected token `newline'

mjrich · 11-09-2004, 03:15 PM

Perhaps post a portion of your customfortunes text file here - there may be a part of it that is fooling strfile (can you see any reason why an error would occur at the point that it did when processing the text file ?).

Cheers,

mj

MiniMe001 · 11-09-2004, 05:56 PM

entire file:
test1
%
test2
%
test3
%
test4
%
test5

Is there something I missed? There IS a trailing return at the end of the file, but I can't seem to get rid of it with gedit or kate. ^^; just reappears when I reopen it.

mjrich · 11-09-2004, 06:06 PM

Hmmmm...

It worked fine for me just now, both with and without a newline at the end of the file. You are just typing

Code:

strfile customfortunes

and nothing else, presumably ? The < and > were just for illustration purposes above, not for actual use (where they begin to redirect input and output willynilly).

Cheers,

mj

MiniMe001 · 11-09-2004, 08:24 PM

>.>
ehh..heh. Actually, I did put the two <> there. But that's because just typing:
strfile myquotes
gives me this:
strfile: command not found

mjrich · 11-09-2004, 08:44 PM

Righto, so either it's not installed (usually at /usr/bin/strfile), or it's not in your path. Try it as root, and if you still have no joy then you'll have to install the full fortune package. Under Debian, this is fortune-mod. Under Mandrake, it's probably the same but you may need to check.

Cheers,

mj

MiniMe001 · 11-10-2004, 11:44 AM

woahhoh.. worked under root. Weird. Is that because it is linked there but not elsewhere? If so, can I link it elsewhere (not important, but hey.)?

mjrich · 11-10-2004, 04:30 PM

If strfile worked as root, and not as an ordinary user then it's probably not in your path. Have a look at the line beginning with PATH in /etc/profile, and maybe add /usr/bin - or wherever strfile is located on your system.

Cheers,

mj