Unix Fun: cowsay command
cowsay is a comman line tool that you can install on any Linux or Unix distro to render funny text updates as if they’re told by a cute text mode cow. There are lots of options to customise the look of both the cow and the text message.
Installing cowsay in Raspbian OS
I decided to install cowsay on one of my Raspberry Pi systems at home:
greys@becky:~ $ sudo apt install cowsay Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: lxkeymap python-cairo python-gtk2 python-xklavier Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. The following additional packages will be installed: cowsay-off Suggested packages: filters The following NEW packages will be installed: cowsay cowsay-off 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 182 not upgraded. Need to get 27.9 kB of archives. After this operation, 114 kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y Get:1 http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/raspbian/raspbian stretch/main armhf cowsay all 3.03+dfsg2-3 [20.1 kB] Get:2 http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/raspbian/raspbian stretch/main armhf cowsay-off all 3.03+dfsg2-3 [7,816 B] Fetched 27.9 kB in 0s (60.1 kB/s) Selecting previously unselected package cowsay. (Reading database ... 211819 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../cowsay_3.03+dfsg2-3_all.deb ... Unpacking cowsay (3.03+dfsg2-3) ... Selecting previously unselected package cowsay-off. Preparing to unpack .../cowsay-off_3.03+dfsg2-3_all.deb ... Unpacking cowsay-off (3.03+dfsg2-3) ... Setting up cowsay (3.03+dfsg2-3) ... Setting up cowsay-off (3.03+dfsg2-3) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.6.1-2) ...
Using Cowsay in Linux
Just type “cowsay” followed by a few words and you’ll get something like this:
Changing the cow appearance in cowsay
From the cowsay man page:
There are several provided modes which change the appearance of the cow depending on its particular emotional/physical state. The -b option initiates Borg mode; -d causes the cow to appear dead; -g invokes greedy mode; -p causes a state of paranoia to come over the cow; -s makes the cow appear thoroughly stoned; -t yields a tired cow; -w is somewhat the opposite of -t, and initiates wired mode; -y brings on the cow’s youthful appearance.
Here’s an example of one of these options:
It’s also possible to just specify the charecters to be used for the eyes of the cow, -e option needs to be followed by the two characters you want to see
:
That’s it for today, it’s been fun!