cowsay is a program that generates
ASCII art
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) character (computing), characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCI ...
pictures of a cow with a message.
It can also generate pictures using pre-made images of other animals, such as
Tux the Penguin, the Linux
mascot
A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...
. It is written in
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language".
Perl was developed ...
. There is also a related program called , with cows with thought bubbles rather than
speech bubbles
Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...
.
.cow files for cowsay exist which are able to produce different variants of cows, with different kinds of eyes, and so forth.
It is sometimes used on
IRC
IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a text-based chat system for instant messaging. IRC is designed for group communication in discussion forums, called '' channels'', but also allows one-on-one communication via private messages as well as chat ...
, desktop screenshots, and in
software documentation
Software documentation is written text or illustration that accompanies computer software or is embedded in the source code. The documentation either explains how the software operates or how to use it, and may mean different things to people in ...
. It is more or less a joke within
hacker culture
The hacker culture is a subculture of individuals who enjoy—often in collective effort—the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming the limitations of software systems or electronic hardware (mostly digital electronics), ...
, but has been around long enough that its use is rather widespread. In 2007, it was highlighted as a
Debian
Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...
package of the day.
Example
The Unix command can also be
piped into the command:
ser@hostname ~ fortune , cowsay
________________________________________
/ You have Egyptian flu: you're going to \
\ be a mummy. /
----------------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
, , ----w ,
, , , ,
Using the parameter followed by , one can replace the cow with other beings, such as
Tux, the Linux mascot:
ser@hostname ~ fortune , cowsay -f tux
_________________________________________
/ You are only young once, but you can \
\ stay immature indefinitely. /
-----------------------------------------
\
\
.--.
, o_o ,
, :_/ ,
// \ \
(, , )
/'\_ _/`\
\___)=(___/
Using the parameter shows all available cow files:
ser@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
References
* Sandra Henry-Stocker (Dec 15, 2020)
"Creating your own cowsay messenger" Unix as a Second Language; ''Network World''. networkworld.com. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
*
c't
''c't'' – (; ''Magazine for Computer Technology'') is a biweekly German computer magazine, published by the Heinz Heise, Heinz Heise publishing house of Hanover.
file:Ct jubilaeum 30 turm.jpg, The 5.71 meter high tower from the 587 published ...
Spaß mit Technik (2018): Einfache Computerprojekte zum Selbermachen. p. 120. c't-Redaktion;
Heise Heise may refer to:
People with the surname
* Bob Heise (born 1947), American Major League Baseball player
* David R. Heise (born 1937), American sociologist
* Geoff Heise, American actor
* Georg Arnold Heise (1778–1851), an influential Germ ...
Medien GmbH & Co. KG. . Retrieved 21 September 2023.
* Sreenath (5 July 2023)
"Moo! There is a Cow in My Linux Terminal" ''It's FOSS''. itsfoss.com. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
External links
*
* {{F-Droid, ch.fixme.cowsay
ASCII art
Free software programmed in Perl
Free and open-source Android software
Linux software
Unix software
Cattle in popular culture
1999 software