Showing a "cowsay" fortune in every new terminal session

Solution 1:

• Open the file ~/.bashrc (or /etc/bash.bashrc if it should work globally for all users).

• Add the following at the bottom of the file:

  if [ -x /usr/games/cowsay -a -x /usr/games/fortune ]; then
      fortune | cowsay
  fi
  

Solution 2:

BONUS: If you're using bash you can make a ~/.bash_logout file and it will execute that when you log out. Make sure to have it sleep for a second or so, or you'll never see it.

cowsay "See you later"; sleep 1

Solution 3:

I would consider setting a limit to the size of the fortune command requested.

fortune -s | cowsay

This will produce at most 160 characters. This is a good size for a greeting, anything more than that and long fortunes will flood your terminal.

Solution 4:

I use

fortune | cowsay -f `ls -1 /usr/share/cowsay/cows/ | sort -R | head -1` -n

This will display a random fortune using a random 'cow'. There's probably a better way to get a random 'cow', but this works for me just fine.

Solution 5:

Better you use .bash_profile because .bashrc is also executed at commands like scp and they will fail silently if there is any output

I found a nice script on pastebin. currently using it.

http://pastebin.com/f0QXTPbt