How Does One Install Fortune?

W

wmichaelb

The package didn't install with the rest of the Gnome2 desktop. Is there a place where it can be downloaded? It doesn't seem to be on Freshports.

Thanks in advance from me and from Wanda.
 
What is 'fortune'? And there's nothing 'on Freshports', as it is just a website indexing and tracking the FreeBSD ports tree (history and changes). It works with the files that are in /usr/ports, just like everyone else.
 
... and if you don't find /usr/games/fortune, run

# sysinstall

and choose the following selections on each successive screen:

  • Configure - Do post-install configuration
  • Distributions - Install additional distributions
  • games - Games (non-commercial)

You can then install from a disk or via ftp.
 
From the opening post I assumed it was something Gnome-specific. Guess not?
 
If you're looking for the FreeBSD tips on login, you can put either

Code: 
if ( -x /usr/games/fortune ) /usr/games/fortune freebsd-tips

or

Code: 
if [ -x /usr/games/fortune ] ; then /usr/games/fortune freebsd-tips ; fi

in your shell start up scripts, depending on the shell you are using.
 
As long as we're talking about it, is there a convenient way of using fortune to generate bitmaps with random fonts and colors? Sort of like fontglide from x11/xscreensaver, only static images that could be presented in a slideshow.
 
Oh no, next thing somebody will want to know how to bake Chinese cookies..
 
It would be a graphic version of fortune. Err, graphic in the sense of a bitmap, not in the fortune -o sense.
 
Fortune Didn't Install (Solved!)

Dutch, thanks for following up. I've been running pkgdb -F ... for three days! Even with the -fu flag, it still requires a lot of user input, and is pretty slow on my 2.4 GHz P4 test machine.

Fortune is an original UNIX program, and is the engine behind the classic Gnome "Wanda the Fish" app. I often use the quotes to lighten up my math lectures.

The suggestion above to invoke sysinstall and then add the "games" category worked; all is well now. I had assumed that doing a full desktop install would include all those pieces, but that's not the case and now I know how to fix it in the future.

Thanks to all!
 
Update (because this page ranks highly): fortune has moved to /usr/bin/fortune (on at least 13 and 14) and is disabled by default in the shell config files. To use fortune in this new era, you must uncomment it in your shell config (.login or .profile) and install a fortune database:

Code: 
# pkg search fortune | grep ^fortune-
fortune-mod-bible-1.0_1        King James V Bible in fortune file format
fortune-mod-bofh-2.0_3         Compilation of excuses from the "Bastard Operator From Hell"
fortune-mod-epictetus-0.2      Quotes from Epictetus
fortune-mod-freebsd-classic-g20171128 Classic FreeBSD fortunes (including offensives)
fortune-mod-futurama-0.2_4     Compilation of quotes from the TV series "Futurama"
fortune-mod-psalms-1.0         Psalms from the Douai Bible in fortune file format
 
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