cowsay
{{Short description|Program that generates ASCII pictures of a cow with a message}}
{{lowercase}}
{{Infobox software
| name = cowsay
| logo =
| screenshot = Cowsay Typical Output.png
| screenshot size = 217px
| caption =
| collapsible =
| author = Tony Monroe
| developer =
| released = 1999
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|edit|reference|P348}}
| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|P348|P577}}}}
| latest preview version =
| latest preview date =
| programming language = Perl
| operating system = Cross-platform
| platform =
| size =
| language = English
| status =
| genre =
| license = Artistic License / GNU General Public License
| website = {{oweb}}
}}
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}
cowsay is a program that generates ASCII art pictures of a cow with a message.{{cite web |url=http://linuxgazette.net/issue67/orr.html |title=cowsay--ASCII Art for Your Screen |work=Linux Gazette |date=June 2001 |access-date=2012-04-24 |author=Orr, Mike |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319053732/http://linuxgazette.net/issue67/orr.html |archive-date=2012-03-19 }} It can also generate pictures using pre-made images of other animals, such as Tux the Penguin, the Linux mascot. It is written in Perl. There is also a related program called {{mono|cowthink}}, with cows with thought bubbles rather than speech bubbles. .cow files for cowsay exist which are able to produce different variants of cows, with different kinds of eyes, and so forth.{{cite web |title=A Virtual Richard Stallman for Cowsay Hack |author=Newborough, Philip |url=http://crunchbang.org/archives/2007/10/05/a-virtual-richard-stallman-for-cowsay-hack/ |date=2007-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725210040/http://crunchbang.org/archives/2007/10/05/a-virtual-richard-stallman-for-cowsay-hack/ |archive-date=2011-07-25}} It is sometimes used on IRC, desktop screenshots, and in software documentation. It is more or less a joke within hacker culture, but has been around long enough that its use is rather widespread. In 2007, it was highlighted as a Debian package of the day.{{cite web|title=cowsay: a configurable talking and thinking cow |url=http://debaday.debian.net/2007/10/28/cowsay-a-configurable-talking-and-thinking-cow/ |date=2007-10-28 |work=Debian Package of the Day |access-date=2022-01-31 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030081644/http://debaday.debian.net/2007/10/28/cowsay-a-configurable-talking-and-thinking-cow/ |archive-date=2007-10-30 |author=Beshenov, Alexey}}
Example
The Unix command {{mono|fortune}} can also be piped into the {{mono|cowsay}} command:
[user@hostname ~]$ fortune | cowsay
________________________________________
/ You have Egyptian flu: you're going to \
\ be a mummy. /
----------------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
Using the parameter {{mono|-f}} followed by {{mono|tux}}, one can replace the cow with other beings, such as Tux, the Linux mascot:
[user@hostname ~]$ fortune | cowsay -f tux
_________________________________________
/ You are only young once, but you can \
\ stay immature indefinitely. /
-----------------------------------------
\
\
.--.
|o_o |
|:_/ |
// \ \
(| | )
/'\_ _/`\
\___)=(___/
Using the parameter {{mono|-l}} shows all available cow files:
[user@hostname ~]$ cowsay -l
Cow files in /usr/share/cowsay/cows:
apt beavis.zen bong bud-frogs bunny calvin cheese cock cower daemon default
dragon dragon-and-cow duck elephant elephant-in-snake eyes flaming-sheep
ghostbusters gnu head-in hellokitty kiss kitty koala kosh luke-koala
mech-and-cow meow milk moofasa moose mutilated pony pony-smaller ren sheep
skeleton snowman sodomized-sheep stegosaurus stimpy suse three-eyes turkey
turtle tux unipony unipony-smaller vader vader-koala www
Parameters
| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" |
| Option
! Purpose |
|---|
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -n
| Disables word wrap, allowing the cow to speak FIGlet or to display other embedded ASCII art. Width in columns becomes that of the longest line, ignoring any value of {{mono |
| W}}. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -W
| Specifies width of the speech balloon in columns, i.e. characters in a monospace font. Default value is 40. |
| colspan="2" | |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -b
| “Borg mode”, uses {{mono|{{=}}{{=}}}} in place of {{mono|oo}} for the cow′s eyes. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -d
| “Dead”, uses {{mono|XX}}, plus a descending {{mono|U}} to represent an extruded tongue, also used on Linux kernel oops. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -g
| “Greedy”, uses {{mono|$$}}. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -p
| “Paranoid”, uses {{mono|@@}}. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -s
| “Stoned”, uses {{mono|**}} to represent bloodshot eyes, plus a descending {{mono|U}} to represent an extruded tongue. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -t
| “Tired”, uses {{mono |
| -}}. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -w
| “Wired”, uses {{mono|OO}}. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -y
| “Youthful”, uses {{mono|..}} to represent smaller eyes. |
| colspan="2" | |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -e eye_string
| Manually specifies the cow′s eye-type, e.g. {{kbd|cowsay -e ^^}} (see Eastern-style emoticon).Characters other than printable in C0 controls and basic Latin (U+0021–U+007E) will not display properly as these parameters accept only the first two bytes of input value. Using a pre-defined cow-face will over-ride any value of {{mono|-e}} and {{mono|-T}}. |
| style="font-family:monospace; white-space:nowrap;" scope="row" | -T tongue_string
| Manually specifies the cow′s tongue shape, e.g. {{kbd|cowsay -T \(\)}} for a pair of parentheses. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -f cowfile
| Specifies a .cow file from which to load alternative ASCII art. Accepts both absolute file-paths and those relative to the environment variable {{mono|COWPATH}}. |
| style="font-family:monospace;" scope="row" | -l
| Lists the names of available cow-files in the {{mono|COWPATH}} directory instead of displaying a quote. |
References
{{Reflist}}
- Sandra Henry-Stocker (Dec 15, 2020). [https://www.networkworld.com/article/3601114/creating-your-own-cowsay-messenger.html "Creating your own cowsay messenger"]. Unix as a Second Language; Network World. networkworld.com. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- c't Spaß mit Technik (2018): Einfache Computerprojekte zum Selbermachen. p. 120. c't-Redaktion; Heise Medien GmbH & Co. KG. {{isbn|9783957882073}}. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- Sreenath (5 July 2023). [https://itsfoss.com/cowsay/ "Moo! There is a Cow in My Linux Terminal"]. It's FOSS. itsfoss.com. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
External links
- {{cite web|url=http://www.nog.net/~tony/warez/cowsay.shtml |title=Official website |access-date=December 25, 2004 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225123719/http://www.nog.net/~tony/warez/cowsay.shtml |archive-date=February 25, 2012 }}
- {{F-Droid|ch.fixme.cowsay}}
Category:Free software programmed in Perl
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