Cowsay

Cowsay

Example Cowsay output
Release Status	Maintained
Last Release	3.04, 2016-06-25
Language(s)	Perl
Developer(s)	cowsay-org
Website	github.com/cowsay-org/cowsay

Cowsay is a simple program that generates ASCII art of a cow with a speech bubble with the given parameter in it. It can also generate other characters / animals using files that end in .cow or the built-in premade art using the -f (cowsay -f [name]) flag. (For example: tux) Other commands like fortune, can be piped into Cowsay, and Cowsay can be piped into commands like lolcat. You can use the -l flag (cowsay -l) to list the available cow files (character / animal names)

Cowsay can be used in many things, for example: Ricing showcases (screenshots, or videos), IRC channels, code comments and etc.

Cowthink is cowsay's "thinking" alternative, which turns the speech bubble into a thinking bubble.

Available Parameters

Options	Cow mode	Cow Eyes	Cow Tongue
-b	Borg mode	==	None
-d	Dead mode	XX	None
-g	Greedy mode	$$	None
-p	Paranoid mode	@@	None
-s	"Stoned" mode	**	U-shaped
-t	Tired mode	--	None
-w	Wired mode	OO	None
-y	Youthful mode	..	None
-e	Custom eye mode	[Given parameter]	Default (none unless specified)
-T	Custom tongue mode	Default (none unless specified)	[given parameter]

Trivia

• Cowsay was debian's package of the day back in 2007 ^[1]
• Larry the Cow (emerge --moo) and Cowsay share the same ASCII art, Debian's Larry ASCII arts don't.
• There is a graphical version of this program called xcowsay.