Random Rainbow Cow Greeting: fortune + cowsay + lolcat
Chain three classic tools to greet every new shell with a colorful talking cow.
Run fortune | cowsay | lolcat to print a random quote from a rainbow-colored cow.
01Command
Command
$ fortune | cowsay | lolcat02What it does
This three-stage pipeline is the canonical Unix toy: fortune produces a random quote, cowsay draws the cow and balloon, and lolcat paints the result. Put the same line in ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc to see it on every new terminal.
03Risk
!Warning: Adding it to your shell profile slows every new shell slightly; keep the databases small if you care about startup time.
04Undo
✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.
05Sources
- Homebrew formula: cowsayEvidence: Provides the cowsay balloon renderer used in the pipeline.
- Homebrew formula: lolcatEvidence: Provides the rainbow colorizer used in the pipeline.
- Homebrew formula: fortuneEvidence: Provides the random quote fed into the pipeline.
Last verified: 2026-09-20 · Category: Developer
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