fortune ☆

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Description:
Infamous electronic fortune-cookie generator

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Other

Tags: cli utility games terminal quotes

Install: brew install fortune

About:
Fortune is a classic Unix utility that displays a random quote or witticism from a pre-compiled database of phrases. It serves as a simple, entertaining command-line tool for adding personality to terminal sessions or system messages. Its value lies in its minimalism and the extensive, community-curated collections of quotes available.

Key Features:

Randomly selects and displays quotes from text databases
Supports multiple, separate quote databases (e.g., riddles, definitions, people)
Simple, lightweight command-line interface
Customizable via flags to control output format and database selection

Use Cases:

Adding a fun, random message to shell startup scripts (.bashrc, .zshrc)
Displaying daily tips or quotes in terminal multiplexers like tmux
Generating random text for testing or placeholder content

Alternatives:

sl – A different terminal novelty that prints a steam locomotive, offering visual amusement rather than text-based quotes.

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit
Sep 13, 2025 6:45pm		0	VERSION_BUMP	c26e6ca8
May 22, 2023 10:39am		0	VERSION_BUMP	9d1a75fc