rfortune 0.5.2

rFortune is a modern, cross-platform reimplementation of the classic Unix fortune program, written in Rust.

It displays a random quote or witty phrase from a plain text file, making it perfect for terminal startup messages, scripting, or just a bit of inspiration.

✨ New in v0.5.2

🆕 Configuration system improvements

• Configuration filename renamed from config.yaml → rfortune.conf for better clarity and portability.
• Automatic migration from legacy config.yaml to the new format — the old file is safely backed up as config.yaml.bak.
• Added the new subcommand config edit:
  • rfortune config edit → opens rfortune.conf using the system’s default text editor.
  • rfortune config edit --editor <name|path> → opens it with a specific editor (e.g. vi, nano, code).
• Automatic detection of preferred editors via $VISUAL and $EDITOR environment variables.
• Default fallback editors are nano (macOS/Linux) and notepad (Windows).

🎨 Improved CLI feedback

• Introduced the new ConsoleLog class for rich, colored terminal output:
  • ℹ Info, ✅ Success, ⚠️ Warning, ❌ Error
• Unified message style and improved feedback during configuration, cache, and fortune file operations.

🚀 Features

• ✅ Cross-platform: works on Linux, Windows, macOS Intel and Apple Silicon
• ⚡ Fast and lightweight (native Rust binary)
• 📁 Simple input format: one or more lines per fortune, separated by %
• 🌹 UTF-8 support for multilingual content
• 🧩 Easily extensible
• 🧠 Built-in cache system to avoid showing the same fortune twice in a row
• ✨ New CLI with subcommands for config, file initialization and cache management

📦 Installation

🐧 AUR (Arch Linux)

yay -S rfortune
# or
paru -S rfortune

🍺 Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew tap umpire274/tap
brew install rfortune

🦀 Crates.io (Rust)

cargo install rfortune

📥 Download

Precompiled binaries are available in the Releases section.

🔐 GPG Signature

All release archives are cryptographically signed with GPG.

• .sig files contain the ASCII-armored detached signature for the corresponding archive.
• You can verify the archive with:

gpg --verify rfortune-<version>-<target>.tar.gz.sig rfortune-<version>-<target>.tar.gz

🔑 Public Key

The releases are signed with the following GPG key:

• Key ID: 423FABCE0A1921FB
• Fingerprint: 8118 9716 9512 2A32 1F3D C04C 423F ABCE 0A19 21FB
• Download: https://github.com/umpire274.gpg

To import the key from a keyserver:

gpg --recv-keys 423FABCE0A1921FB

Or from OpenPGP server:

gpg --keyserver keys.openpgp.org --recv-keys 423FABCE0A1921FB

Then verify the fingerprint:

gpg --fingerprint 423FABCE0A1921FB

🚀 Usage

rfortune [OPTIONS]
rfortune <SUBCOMMAND>

Running rfortune without subcommands prints a random fortune from the default file (rfortune.dat).

🧩 Options & Subcommands

💡 Examples

# Print a random fortune from the default file (rfortune.dat)
rfortune

# Print a random fortune from a specific file
rfortune --file ~/fortunes/misc

# Create the default configuration file in the user data directory
rfortune config init

# Open the configuration file in the system’s default text editor
rfortune config edit

# Open the configuration file with a specific editor (e.g. vi, nano, code)
rfortune config edit --editor vi

# Create a sample default fortune file (rfortune.dat)
rfortune file init

# Clear all cached last-used fortunes
rfortune cache clear

📁 File Format

Each fortune must be on one or more lines separated by %, like so:

%
The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.
%
Do or do not. There is no try.
%
To iterate is human, to recurse divine.
%

You may optionally add a title at the top of the file by starting the first line with #. The title will be printed before the random quote:

# Murphy's Laws
%
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
%
If there's a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
%

🔒 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

© 2025 Alessandro Maestri

💡 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! If you’d like to add support for more languages, improve performance, or fix bugs, feel free to fork the repo and contribute.

🙌 Acknowledgments

Inspired by the classic BSD fortune program. Built with ❤️ in Rust.