The Code Lair

Secrets of my Fortune Cookie File.... Revealed!

"Fortune cookies", in this context, are the often-humorous quotes you might see when logging in or out of a machine on many UNIX operating systems, or similar shell OSes. On this page I have available for download my fortune cookie file, as well as a dynamic sample from that list.

My fortune cookie file contains over thirty thousand quotes, from one-liners to nearly page long entries (this is not entirely untraditional, many cookie files have entries much longer than your usual one-line fortune cookie fortune.) The file contains memorable quotes, jokes, and little stories of all types. They were culled from many public domain or free-use sources, including the famous University of Berkeley cookie file. Some of these quotes have been spotted used as fortunes on systems for 20-30 years, so this is like a bit of hacker nostalgia.

If you want to download it, here it is, compressed. (2.2 Mb) Also, here is a simple program which illustrates how you might randomly print a fortune from this cookie file.

Below is a random quote from the cookie file. Press your browser's Refresh button to see another.

(I should also note that even I haven't seen every fortune in my cookie file. There might be some pretty tasteless ones in there. So keep that in mind. Opinions expressed by the fortune cookie do not necessarily represent those of Chris or Codehappy.Net.)

Over 30,000 fortunes for your enjoyment!

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Refresh this page to get a new fortune.