Bash fun

radu@enterprise:~$ sudo apt-get install cowsay
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  filters
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  cowsay
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/19.8kB of archives.
After this operation, 295kB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously deselected package cowsay.
(Reading database ... 173410 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking cowsay (from .../cowsay_3.03-9.2_all.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up cowsay (3.03-9.2) ...

radu@enterprise:~$ fortune | cowsay -n -f tux.cow
 __________________________________________________________________________
/ In the first place, God made idiots; this was for practice; then he made \
| school boards.                                                           |
\                 -- Mark Twain                                            /
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
   \
    \
        .--.
       |o_o |
       |:_/ |
      //   \ \
     (|     | )
    /'\_   _/`\
    \___)=(___/

radu@enterprise:~$ fortune | cowsay -n -f sodomized.cow
 ________________________________________________________
< You will have domestic happiness and faithful friends. >
 --------------------------------------------------------
      \                _
       \              (_)
        \   ^__^       / \
         \  (oo)\_____/_\ \
            (__)\       ) /
                ||----w ((
                ||     ||>>

17 Comments

• 
  Tudor June 18th, 2009 at 14:45

  Cool stuff But not as cool as

  sudo su
  cowsay -f tux “I see you” > /dev/pts/0

  where /dev/pts/0 is another dude’s console

  Reply
• 
  Radu June 18th, 2009 at 14:52

  Actually, I think it would be more fun to do something like:

  [radu@WL-500W root]$ cowsay -f sodomized "I see you behind this cow!" > /dev/pts/1
   ____________________________
  < I see you behind this cow! >
   ----------------------------
        \                _
         \              (_)
          \   ^__^       / \
           \  (oo)\_____/_\ \
              (__)\       ) /
                  ||----w ((
                  ||     ||>>

  with the amendment that you should use another user’s console.

  Reply
• How to have fun with your Linux server :: Fun with cowsay under Linux | Tudor Barbu's professional blog June 18th, 2009 at 14:55

  [...] Later edit: the fun continues here! [...]

  Reply
• 
  cowcant root July 23rd, 2009 at 10:38

  I have can do both cowsay and fortune as a user but not as root. Both were installed via root apt-get install cowsay fortune

  But when trying either cmd as root I get:
  -bash: cowsay: command not found
  -bash: fortune: command not found

  any ideas?

  Thank you!

  Reply
  • 
    Radu July 23rd, 2009 at 11:22

    Why would you like to run it as root? The answer to this is that cowsay and fortune are not in the $PATH variable for root.

    radu@tux:~$ echo $PATH
    /opt/soapui/bin:/opt/maven/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games
    radu@tux:~$ sudo -i
    root@tux:~# echo $PATH
    /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin
    root@tux:~# cowsay
    Command 'cowsay' is available in '/usr/games/cowsay'
    The command could not be located because '/usr/games' is not included in the PATH environment variable.
    -bash: cowsay: command not found

    So the answer is either you do not use root for cowsay (I really do not see the point of doing this), either you add in the $PATH variable for root the folder /usr/games or you just use Tudor’s way of doing this described in his first comment.
    Have fun!

    Reply
• 
  cowcant root July 23rd, 2009 at 12:34

  Forgot to say I use Linux Debian 5.0.1 Lenny.
  Newbie
  Actually I don’t want to use it as root, (been told should never use root except when needed) but I read that I need to, to do as root to message another user logged in like this:
  cowsay -f moose I see you > /dev/pts/0
  This cmd gets “denied” as a user

  cowsay -f sodomized “I see you” > /dev/pts/1
  cowsay -f sodomized “I see you” > /dev/pts/0
  These cmds gets “event not found” as a user
  (though I am logged in as two different users)

  Reply
• 
  cowcant root July 23rd, 2009 at 12:47

  Ok I retried the cmds, just an update.. if I remove the “!” in :
  cowsay -f sodomized “I see you behind this cow!” > /dev/pts/1

  Then I get the same error, with or without the quotes: ” ”
  which is: -bash: /dev/pts/1: Permission denied
  (as a user)
  as su: bash: cowsay: command not found

  I read Tudor had said on another post:
  “PS: this requires root level access”

  Thank you again

  Reply
  • 
    Radu July 23rd, 2009 at 14:04

    Tudor said sudo su. If you use sudo -i, as I used, it won’t work. For you to send that message with the exclamation mark, you just need to remove the quotes:

    root@tux:/home/radu# cowsay -f sodomized I see you behind this cow! > /dev/pts/0
     ____________________________
    < I see you behind this cow! >
     ----------------------------
                          _
                         (_)
               ^__^       / 
               (oo)_____/_ 
                (__)       ) /
                    ||----w ((
                    ||     ||>>

    The first output of the sodomized cow was from BusyBox, on my router, which does not interpret the quotes like Ubuntu does.
    
    P.S. Why are you afraid to use your email? If you use it, I wouldn’t have to approve every comment you make, only the first one registered with it. I’m not gonna sell it for spam…

    Reply
• 
  cowcant root July 23rd, 2009 at 14:16

  Radu thank you again.
  Yes re sudo su:
  sudo su
  -bash: sudo: command not found

  For my Debian its su which I believe is the same thing, yes?
  So for su can’t cowsay
  and for user can’t /dev/pts/1

  Maybe I am misunderstanding the ‘sudo su’ thing?

  Re the e-mail, to be honest, just a habit when registering isn’t required. Sorry I didn’t realize you had to approve each time so I have put my email this time

  Reply
  • 
    Radu July 23rd, 2009 at 15:03

    Try man sudo and see the difference between those options. If you try to use sudo as root, well that’s not possible. sudo is meant only for users other than root, but they must be in the sudoers list. If you have tried sudo as a regular user and found that “error”, you either are in the case mentioned in the previous phrase, either you have broken your hostname by not keeping consistency between /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts.

    Reply
• 
  cowcant root July 24th, 2009 at 09:14

  Thank you Radu. I didn’t know that. All along I thought su & sudo were thee same thing just different cmd’s for different OS’s. Wow ok from cowsay to fixing this lol…

  After some digging I found that I didn’t have ‘sudo’ (http://www.binbash.eu/linux/58-debian-etch-notes) so I did:

  aptitude install sudo 
  No /etc/sudoers found... creating one for you.

  Ok so now I try (as a user and as root) sudo
  reply same for both:

  sudo: unable to resolve host PTy990499a.servername.com

  (*PTy990499a.servername.com I have changed, it’s not the real server name, just similar)

  cat /etc/hostname

  simply has PTy990499a.servername.com and this hostname can not be resolved (Dns unable to resolve..). Where as the servername.com part can be resolved, correctly. And the PTy990499a part is what I see on the console on each line, for example:

  PTy990499a:~# cat /etc/hostname
  PTy990499a.servername.com
  PTy990499a:~# cat /etc/hosts
  127.0.0.1       localhost
  200/66.123.66   PTy990499a.servername.com.servername.com  PTy990499a
   
  # The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
  ::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
  fe00::0 ip6-localnet
  ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
  ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
  ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
  ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

  (*200/66.123.66 also not the real IP)

  So I’m going to try to fix this myself, please don’t give away any clues and see if I can do this myself. Just a crazy busy day here. Will post when done or stuck
  Thank you again Radu!

  Reply
• 
  cowcant root July 25th, 2009 at 05:03

  Sorry Radu; stuck and very frustrated.
  This is what I have done and the edited replies. I posted here: http://pastebin.com/m45312224
  as worried too long for here and felt like it was ruining your nice cosway post
  I’m also very nervous that I’m messing with the host files. Since I only have remote access to this box it would be impossible to fix it if it went off line because I mess something up real good.

  Thank you very much!

  PS. I didn’t mean to come here to have you fix all of this for me, sorry…if you want me to take it to a forum to fix, I understand Thank you again Radu!

  Reply
• 
  cowcant root July 26th, 2009 at 07:09

  I’m back with a working sudo
  sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload
  [sudo] password for myname:
  Reloading web server config: apache2.

  But cowsay still can’t speak to another user. I’ve tried a variety of cmds:
  sudo su cowsay -f moose I see you > /dev/pts/2
  -bash: /dev/pts/2: Permission denied

  sudo su cowsay -f moose I see you > sudo /dev/pts/2
  su: invalid option — f
  Usage: su [options] [LOGIN]

  sudo su cowsay -f moose I see you > sudo su /dev/pts/2
  su: invalid option — f
  Usage: su [options] [LOGIN]

  sudo cowsay -f moose I see you > /dev/pts/2
  -bash: /dev/pts/2: Permission denied

  sudo cowsay -f moose I see you > sudo /dev/pts/2
  sudo: cowsay: command not found

  cowsay -f moose I see you > sudo su /dev/pts/2
  (no reply, and it didn’t say to user 2)

  Any ideas? Thank you

  Reply
  • 
    Radu July 26th, 2009 at 12:01

    Yeah… I’ve got two ideas. First issue who in a terminal to see who is logged in and where. Then do what Tudor has shown you. Afterwards maybe you can send me some money for support.

    Reply

    [language]
    code lines
    [/language]
	

    [bash]
    /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
    [/bash]
	

    The <code>$USER</code> variable holds the current logged in username.