Creating Custom Fortunes for the fortune Command

Question

Having trouble creating custom fortunes for the fortune command. I am running Mac OS X 10.6 and I used fink to install the fortune and fortune-mod command. Here is my process:

1. I create a text file like so:

ARMED MEN ARE CITIZENS, UNARMED MEN ARE SUBJECTS!!! % Armenians are comical in full battle dress. % Armies aren't known for neatness. -- Solomon Short %

1. Ran this command in the Terminal:

strfile mytextfile quotes.dat

1. Finally I try and run:

fortune quotes.dat

And greets me with this error:

fortune:/Users/bigred/Downloads/quotes.dat not a fortune file or directory

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You run it from the text file, the .dat file is just the database. Both files need to be named the same and in the same directory. When you type fortune quotes it will look for quotes.dat.

so:

strfile quotes

will create quotes.dat. You can then run them like so:

fortune quotes

output:

[root@awesome ~]# fortune quotes
ARMED MEN ARE CITIZENS, UNARMED MEN ARE SUBJECTS!!!