xcowsay(6) Games and Demos xcowsay(6)

NAME

xcowsay - Display a cute cow and speech bubble.

SYNOPSIS

xcowsay [-h] [-t time] [-r speed] [-d] [-f font] [text]...

DESCRIPTION

Display a cow with a speech bubble containing some text. If text is
specified it will be displayed in the bubble. Otherwise the text
will be read from the standard input and displayed when end of file
is encountered.

The cow is displayed for either a fixed amount of time, or an amount
of time calculated from the size of the text. Click on the cow to
dismiss it immediately.

If xcowsay is started with --daemon it will fork away from the
terminal and run in daemon mode. The daemon provides a DBus service
uk.me.doof.Cowsay that responds to ShowCow requests. The daemon can
queue up any number of requests and displays them in order.

When xcowsay starts it checks to see if a daemon is running, and if
it is, sends a ShowCow request and returns immediately. Otherwise
xcowsay will block until the cow has disappeared.

CONFIGURATION FILE

xcowsay reads a configuration file on startup. The configuration
file can be stored in the XDG compliant location
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xcowsayrc (which will default to
$HOME/.config/xcowsayrc) or in your home directory at
$HOME/.xcowsayrc. If the --config=FILE command line option is passed
FILE will be processed after your personal configuration file.

The configuration file consists of 'option = value' pairs, one per
line. The valid keys are given in the next section. For example,
the following line sets display time to 10 seconds:

display_time = 10000

The character '#' begins a comment which lasts until the end of the
line.

Values containing spaces should be enclosed in quotes. For example:

font = "mono 28"

OPTIONS

Note that these options override any settings in the config file.

-h, --help
Display usage information.

-t time, --time=time
Display the cow for time seconds. This overrides any value
set for reading_speed. Setting time to zero displays the cow
until it is clicked. The corresponding config file option is
display_time. This can also be set to a fractional value like
0.5.

-r speed, --reading-speed=speed
Number of milliseconds to display the cow for each word in the
input text. This is clamped to a minimum of min_display_time
and a maximum of max_display_time. The defaults are 1 second
and 30 seconds respectively. The corresponding config file
option is reading_speed.

-f font, --font=font
Font for the speech bubble text. Accepts Pango font strings.
The corresponding config file option is font.

-d file, --dream=file
Display an image instead of text in the cow's bubble. The
dream_time config file option sets the numer of milliseconds
to display the image for. The default is 10 seconds.

--think
Display a thought bubble instead of a speech bubble.

--daemon
Run xcowsay in daemon mode if DBus support has been enabled.
See the DESCRIPTION section above for more information.

--cow-size=size
Size of the cow image. Current choices are small, med, or
large. The corresponding config file option is cow_size.

--image=file
Use a different image instead of the cow. The corresponding
config file option is alt_image.

--monitor=N
Make the cow appear on monitor N.

--at=X,Y
Force that cow to appear at screen location (X,Y). The config
file options are at_x and at_y.

--bubble-at=X,Y
Change position of bubble relative to where it would normally
appear. This is most useful when combined with the alt_image
option to create your own characters. The config file options
are bubble_x and bubble_y.

--no-wrap
Disable word wrapping when the bubble is too wide to fit on
the screen. The config file option wrap can be set to true or
false to set this explicitly.

-l, --left
Make the bubble appear on the left hand side of the cow. This
is useful if you are using your own image.

--debug
Print messages about what xcowsay is doing. Useful for
finding out why the daemon fails.

--release
Close window on release event instead of press. The
corresponding config file option is
close_event=button-release-event.

-v, --version
Print version information.

AUTHOR

Written by Nick Gasson.

REPORTING BUGS

Report all bugs to nick@nickg.me.uk The xcowsay home page is
<http://www.doof.me.uk/xcowsay>

SEE ALSO

cowsay(6)

xcowsay(6)