4 This is fortune-mod-1.99.1. It's a pre-release for
5 fortune-mod-2.0. This should give interested parties a chance to have
6 a look at the changes that have come in, and the new features.
8 Fortune-mod now leaves at http://www.redellipse.net/code/fortune. You
9 can find the CVS repository at
10 http://cvs.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/fortune/?cvsroot=fortune
12 Many thanks to Dennis for making the last release of this software,
13 and to everyone who has taken the time to contribute quotes. We are
14 now up to 22203 fortunes at last count. Keep 'em coming!
16 -- Pascal Hakim <pasc@redellipse.net> Fri, 05 Mar 2004 23:03:00 +1100
22 This is fortune-mod 9708. It is basically the same as the fortune-mod
23 released in October 1995, with some portability improvements, bug fixes
24 and documentation cleanup.
26 The most significant fix was for the reported bug about the `-a' option
27 of fortune with database names that appear in both the inoffensive and
28 offensive directories. This was solved by allowing the user to append
29 '-o' to a fortune name while `-a' is in effect to force selection of the
30 offensive version of a database.
32 Other changes/fixes: Fortune is now consistent in how it determines a
33 fortune's length (for -s and -l). The -m can now be used together with
34 -s or -l: only fortunes which match _BOTH_ the pattern and the length
35 requirement will be printed.
37 Most of the other features over the usual BSD fortune are summarised in
38 Amy's README.Linux, included below, and in the accompanying manual pages
39 for fortune(6) and strfile(1).
41 The changes in fortune.c and fortune.man are copyrighted by me but
42 freely distributable: see the source files for details. All other
43 changes are in the public domain: you may do what you like with them.
48 You can find out about my latest version of this package from my
49 Software Hacks web page:
51 http://www.progsoc.uts.edu.au/~dbugger/hacks/hacks.html
53 From it, there are links to download the source code.
55 I shall also be uploading "stable" releases to the SunSITE Linux mirror
56 network, so check out sunsite.unc.edu or your local SunSITE mirror. If
57 you still can't find it, the package should be registered under the
58 Linux Software Map, at:
60 http://www.execpc.com/lsm/
62 Its LSM entry should tell you where to find it.
67 -- Dennis L. Clark <dbugger@progsoc.uts.edu.au> Thu, 28 Aug 1997 11:42:15 -0400
69 ----Amy's README.Linux---
70 This version of fortune is a modification of the NetBSD fortune, as
71 tweaked by Florian La Roche (see below, and many thanks to Florian for
72 starting the update), and then massively hacked on by Amy Lewis.
74 I (Amy) hacked on this because it was broken; the BSD source itself is
75 broken (I looked at it). Specifically, if you are using an old version
76 of fortune, then it accesses *only* the two files "fortunes" and
77 "fortunes-o", even though 'fortune -[ao]f' will tell you differently.
78 That was my original reason to start working with the code.
80 Bug fixes: fortune now reads the same file list that it reports with -f.
81 strfile now really sorts and randomizes, instead of just setting the
82 'sorted' and 'randomized' flags. strfile does not lose the pointer to a
83 fortune that follows a null fortune.
85 Enhancements: fortune -f now prints percentages, whether specified on the
86 command line or not. fortune -m now prints filenames to stderr; the
87 fortunes printed to stdout can be redirected into a file which is valid
88 strfile format. fortune -l|s can be modified with -n _number_ to specify
89 the number of characters in a short fortune (default 160, as before).
90 The means of distinguishing between offensive and inoffensive fortunes is
91 changed: offensive fortunes are put in a separate subdirectory. The
92 contents of the fortunes databases have been extensively reviewed, and
93 broken into smaller, more manageable [hopefully] files.
94 strfile is not notably enhanced, though it received the most significant
95 bug fixes. unstr now accepts a command line parameter -c _char_ which
96 globally changes the delimiter character. unstr now accepts an output
97 file as the second file parameter, and can tell if a file has a '.dat'
99 An example of the use of fortune-style databases for other purposes,
100 called randstr, has been added. See util/README.randstr
101 The Makefiles have been extensively hacked upon.
103 Bugs: combining -a with xx% filename, when _filename_ is found in both
104 the offensive and the inoffensive directories, causes fortune to exit
105 without an error message. I think it's confused as to which file gets
106 the xx%. I should fix this. Don't hold your breath, though.
108 For more information, see the files ChangeLog, Offensive, README.install,
109 and cookie-files in the top-level directory, and the comments in the
110 various *.c source files.
112 Amy A. Lewis alewis@email.unc.edu October, 1995
114 ----Florian's README.LINUX---
115 I have looked at sunsite and tsx and found one very old fortune program
116 and one in the debian Linux distribution. But comparing that one with
117 the version in NetBSD-current showed me, that NetBSD-current has fixed
118 so many speeling-bugs that I just had to repackage everything for the
121 In the source package are all changes for Linux in the file LINUX.DIF.
122 (Rewriting the Makefiles and some trivial small fixes.)
124 I expect this "fortune.tar.gz" to show up under /pub/Linux/games.
126 Not only the kernel needs speeling-corrections,
128 Florian La Roche florian@jurix.jura.uni-sb.de April 1995
131 PS. The following is the README from the originating NetBSD fortune:
132 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
134 # $NetBSD: README,v 1.2 1995/03/23 08:28:29 cgd Exp $
135 # @(#)README 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93
137 The potentially offensive fortunes are not installed by default on BSD
138 systems. If you're absolutely, *positively*, without-a-shadow-of-a-doubt
139 sure that your user community wants them installed, whack the Makefile
140 in the subdirectory datfiles, and do "make all install".
142 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
143 Some years ago, my neighbor Avery said to me: "There has not been an
144 adequate jokebook published since "Joe_Miller", which came out in 1739 and
145 which, incidentally, was the most miserable no-good ... jokebook in the
146 history of the printed word."
147 In a subsequent conversation, Avery said: "A funny story is a funny
148 story, no matter who is in it - whether it's about Catholics or Protestants,
149 Jews or Gentiles, blacks or whites, browns or yellows. If a story is genuinely
150 funny it makes no difference how dirty it is. Shout it from the rooftops.
151 Let the chips fall all over the prairie and let the bonehead wowsers yelp.
153 It is a nice thing to have a neighbor of Avery's grain. He has
154 believed in the aforestated principles all his life. A great many other
155 people nowadays are casting aside the pietistic attitude that has led them
156 to plug up their ears against the facts of life. We of The Brotherhood
157 believe as Avery believes; we have never been intimidated by the pharisaical
158 meddlers who have been smelling up the American landscape since the time of
159 the bundling board. Neither has any one of our members ever been called a
160 racist. Still, we have been in unremitting revolt against the ignorant
161 propensity which ordains, in effect, that "The Green Pastures" should never
162 have been written; the idiot attitude which compelled Arthur Kober to abandon
163 his delightful Bella Gross, and Octavius Roy Cohen to quit writing about the
164 splendiferous Florian Slappey; the moronic frame of mind which, if carried
165 to its logical end, would have forbidden Ring Lardner from writing in the
166 language of the masses.
167 -- H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes"
169 ... let us keep in mind the basic governing philosophy of The
170 Brotherhood, as handsomely summarized in these words: we believe in
171 healthy, hearty laughter -- at the expense of the whole human race, if
174 -- H. Allen Smith, "Rude Jokes"
projects / fortune-mod / blob