1 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-only
5 manual_title = Games Manual
7 [supercommand tfortune]
16 synopsis = [global-options...] [--] [<subcommand> [subcommand-options...]]
18 summary = print help and exit
20 [option detailed-help]
21 summary = print help, including all details, and exit
23 summary = print version and exit
26 summary = control amount of logging
28 arg_info = required_arg
32 LSGLL_DEBUG = "debug",
34 LSGLL_NOTICE = "notice",
35 LSGLL_WARNING = "warning",
36 LSGLL_ERROR = "error",
42 Log only messages with severity greater or equal than the given
43 value. Possible values:
45 debug: Produces really noisy output.
46 info: Still noisy, but won't fill up the disk quickly.
47 notice: Indicates normal, but significant event.
48 warning: Unexpected events that can be handled.
49 error: Unhandled error condition.
50 crit: System might be unreliable.
51 emerg: Last message before exit.
54 summary = where to look for input files
56 arg_info = required_arg
59 default_val = "~/.tfortune"
61 This is used to locate epigrams and named tag expressions.
62 If any filename argument does not start with a slash, the
63 filename is interpreted as relative to this base directory.
65 Epigrams are expected in the "epigrams" subdirectory of the base
66 directory while tag expressions are expected to be stored below
69 If the option is not given, and the per-user epigram directory does
70 not exist, the system-wide default DATADIR() is tried. There is no
71 such fallback for tag expressions, though.
75 purpose = perform bash command line completion
76 non-opts-name = arg...
78 This subcommand is executed from the bash completer for tfortune. The
79 completer sets the non-option arguments for the subcommand to the
80 words of the current command line. It obtains these words from the
81 elements of the special COMP_WORDS array which is maintained by bash.
83 The compgen subcommand writes all possible completions to stdout. The
84 completer reads in the completions and builds the COMPREPLY array
85 containing the matching entries. Bash examines the elements of this
86 array and completes the command line if there is a single matching
87 completion, or prints out the list of completions in case of ambiguity.
90 [option current-word-index]
92 summary = index of the current word in the command line
94 arg_info = required_arg
97 An index into the argument vector of the word containing the current
98 cursor position. See the description of the $CWORD special variable
102 [subcommand completer]
103 purpose = print the bash completer to stdout
105 The output of this command is designed to be re-used as input for bash.
106 Specifically, bash completion for tfortune can be activated by adding
107 the following to .bashrc: eval "$(tfortune completer)".
110 summary = also add an alias and a completer for it
112 arg_info = required_arg
116 Specify this to define a bash alias for tfortune along with the
117 completer. Unlike the regular tfortune program, the alias will
118 contain the double dash argument which separates the subcommand and
119 its options from the options to tfortune itself.
123 purpose = edit epigrams
124 non-opts-name = basename...
126 Opens the named epigram file an interactive editor. The executable
127 of the editor is determined as follows: First the contents of the
128 environment variable TFORTUNE_EDITOR is examined. If this variable
129 is empty or unset, EDITOR is tried. If EDITOR is also unset, vi
132 The given basename is interpreted as described in the help text of the
133 --basedir option above. If --basedir is not given and the "epigrams"
134 directory does not exist, it is created.
138 purpose = edit tag expressions
139 non-opts-name = basename...
141 Opens the named tag expression file an interactive editor. The editor
142 to execute is determined in the same way as for the "ede" subcommand.
143 Also, a non-existing "expressions" subdirectory is handled in the same
147 purpose = list available subcommands or print command-specific help
148 non-opts-name = [command]
150 Without any arguments, help prints the list of available commands. When
151 called with a command name argument, it prints the help text of the
156 summary = show the long help text
158 If the optional argument is supplied, the long help text contains the
159 synopsis, the purpose and the description of the specified command,
160 followed by the option list including summary and help text of each
161 option. Without --long, the short help is shown instead. This omits
162 the description of the command and the option help.
164 If no command is supplied but --long is given, the list contains the
165 purpose of each command.
169 purpose = identify epigram files which contain epigrams matching a pattern
170 non-opts-name = <regex>
172 This prints the names of the epigram files which contain at least one
173 epigram that matches the given pattern. It is similar to running the
174 shell command "grep -El <regex>" on all epigram files.
176 The <regex> argument must be of the form described in section "Tag
177 Expressions" of tfortune(1).
181 summary = edit matching files
183 Instead of printing file names, all epigram files are opened in
184 the editor which contain at least one matching epigram. See the
185 description of the "ede" subcommand for how the editor is invoked.
189 purpose = list epigram files
191 Print the list of all epigram files.
195 summary = long listing
197 This is similar to the long output of the standard ls(1) command.
203 This lists all tags contained in any of the given input files.
205 non-opts-name = <file>...
208 summary = long listing
210 Also show how many times this tag appears.
212 [option sort-by-count]
214 summary = sort by occurrence count rather than alphabetically.
217 summary = reverse sort order
220 purpose = list tag expressions
222 Print the list of all named tag expressions.
226 summary = long listing
228 This is similar to the long output of the standard ls(1) command.
231 purpose = print epigram(s)
233 Unless --all is given, this picks an epigram by random from the
234 given file(s) which is admissible with respect to the given named
235 tag expression. If no file is given, all files are taken into account.
237 non-opts-name = [file...]
240 summary = name of the tag expression
241 arg_info = required_arg
244 default_val = /dev/null
246 Use the tag expression stored in the given file to define the
247 admissible epigrams. The special string "-" means to read the tag
248 expression from stdin. The default value corresponds to the empty
249 tag expression for which all epigrams are admissible.
253 summary = print all admissible epigrams, not just a random one.
256 summary = print also the tags of the selected epigram
258 purpose = show statistics
260 This prints several counts and averages about the epigrams, tags and
265 summary = include statistics about hash table utilization
267 [section Input file format]
268 Input files may contain arbitrary many epigrams. The end of each
269 epigram must be marked with a "tag" line. The tag line consists of
270 four dashes, a space character, and a comma separated list of tags.
271 Tags may span multiple words, but no comma is allowed. The following
272 is an example input file for tfortune. It contains a single epigram
277 Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means
278 is, of course, living in a state of sin. -- John von Neumann
284 [section Tag Expressions]
285 Tag expressions are based on a context-free grammar in which the
286 following keywords are defined:
291 if the epigram contains a tag named
297 evaluates to the number of bytes of the epigram.
300 evaluates to contents of the epigram. This is useful for pattern
304 The grammar admits the following operators and relations:
309 logical operators for
319 arithmetic operators for addition, negation or subtraction (unary
320 or binary minus), multiplication and division. Arithmetic is always
321 performed on 64 bit signed integers.
330 less than, greater than, less or equal than, greater or equal than,
331 equal to, not equal to, regular expression match.
332 Regular expression patterns are of the form
333 .IR /pattern/[flags] .
334 That is, the pattern is delimited by slashes, and is followed by
335 zero or more characters, each specifying a flag according to the
344 Treat newline as an ordinary character
349 Note that only extended regular expression patterns are supported. See
350 regex(3) for details.
353 The above operators obey the usual associativity and precedence
354 rules. Parentheses can be used to change precedence.
358 is an expression in this grammar which evaluates to either
362 Epigrams for which the expression is
367 For example, the above epigram is admissible for the tag expression
371 (tag("math") || tag("physics")) && len < 1000 && text =~ /neumann/i
375 It is not admissible for
379 (tag("math") && tag("physics")) || len > 1000 || text =~ /neumann/
386 Print a random epigram:
394 Print a random short (less than 100 bytes) epigram:
398 echo 'len < 100' | tfortune -l debug -- print -x -
402 List tags, including usage counts, sort by count in descending order:
410 Activate bash completion and define the
416 eval "$(tfortune completer -a tf)"
425 Copyright (C) COPYRIGHT_YEAR() AUTHOR()
429 This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
431 There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
434 .UR PACKAGE_HOMEPAGE()