cowsay
TLDR
Say message
SYNOPSIS
cowsay [options] [message]
DESCRIPTION
cowsay generates ASCII art of a cow saying a message. It's a whimsical program that displays text in a speech bubble with various animal ASCII art, commonly used for fun messages, fortune quotes, or MOTD displays.
The program has become an iconic part of Unix culture.
PARAMETERS
-f cowfile
Specify cow file-l
List available cows-e eyes
Set eye appearance-T tongue
Set tongue appearance-W width
Word wrap width-n
No word wrap-d
Dead cow mode-g
Greedy mode-p
Paranoid mode-s
Stoned mode-t
Tired mode-w
Wired mode-y
Young mode
AVAILABLE COWS
List all: `cowsay -l`
Common ones:
- default - Classic cow
- dragon - Dragon
- tux - Tux the penguin
- elephant - Elephant
- moose - Moose
- stegosaurus - Dinosaur
- vader - Darth Vader
WORKFLOW
cowsay "Hello World"
# Thinking cow
cowthink "What to do..."
# Different animal
cowsay -f dragon "Roar!"
# Custom eyes and tongue
cowsay -e ^^ -T "U " "Happy cow"
# Dead cow
cowsay -d "I'm not feeling well"
# Pipe input
fortune | cowsay
# With lolcat
cowsay "Rainbow!" | lolcat
RELATED COMMANDS
cowthink
Thinking cow (thought bubble instead of speech)fortune | cowsay
Random quote from cow
CUSTOMIZATION
Custom cow files in: `/usr/share/cowsay/cows/`
Create your own ASCII art cow!
CAVEATS
Pure entertainment value. Large messages may format oddly. Custom cow files need correct format. Some find it unprofessional in serious contexts. Original Perl version, various ports exist.
HISTORY
cowsay was written by Tony Monroe in 1999, becoming a beloved Unix novelty program and inspiring numerous derivatives.
