How to install and use cowsay on Lubuntu

Alright, i'm going to make another fun tutorial, this time we are going to play around with program called cowsay.

To install cowsay on lubuntu, simply run this apt-get install command from the console/terminal, like this:

sudo apt-get install cowsay

kernelpanic@kernelpanic:~$ sudo apt-get install cowsay
[sudo] password for kernelpanic: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  filters
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  cowsay
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 147 not upgraded.
Need to get 18,3 kB of archives.
After this operation, 91,1 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://id.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ vivid/universe cowsay all 3.03+dfsg1-10 [18,3 kB]
Fetched 18,3 kB in 4s (3.679 B/s)
Selecting previously unselected package cowsay.
(Reading database ... 116054 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../cowsay_3.03+dfsg1-10_all.deb ...
Unpacking cowsay (3.03+dfsg1-10) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-5) ...
Setting up cowsay (3.03+dfsg1-10) ...

To use cowsay, simply type cowsay followed by the words you want the cow to say, here's an example:

cowsay "lubuntu is the best operating system"

You will see something like this:

Cowsay have several arguments/parameters that can be use to make it more fun, here's list of arguments/parameters that you can use with cowsay:

• cowsay -d (makes the cow look like a dead cow)
• cowsay -t (tired eyes)
• cowsay -g (dollar eyes)
• cowsay -p (confused eyes)
• cowsay -s (stoned eyes)
• cowsay -w (default eyes)
• cowsay -b (borg mode)
• cowsay -h (show cowsay version)
• cowsay -e [eye_string] (change the eye of the cow to selected string)
• cowsay -T [tongue_string] (change the eye of the cow to selected string)
• cowsay -W [number] (word wrap for the text, the default is 40)
• cowsay -f [cow_file]

Here's some example :

cowsay -d "hello my name is cindy"

cowsay -t "i'm tired"

cowsay -g "that look delicious"

cowsay -p "i'm confused"

cowsay -s "i can't feel my legs"

cowsay -e GG "lubuntuhowto.blogspot.com is the best blog"

cowsay -e TT -T V "lubuntuhowto.blogspot.com is the best blog"

cowsay -W 5 "lubuntuhowto.blogspot.com is the best blog in the entire universe ever"

Cowsay is actually consist of two program, cowsay and cowthink, the difference is cowsay is for saying something while cowthink is where the cow thinking.

We can use parameters/arguments for cowsay on cowthink, they basically the same thing, here's an example:

cowthink -d "i'm a dead cow"

cowthink -W 5 "lubuntuhowto.blogspot.com is the best blog in the entire universe ever"

Using pipe with cowsay

Alright this where the fun begins, how about use cowsay to show output from other programs? we can use pipe command "|" to do that, like this:

pwd | cowsay -t

date | cowsay -p

lsb_release -a | cowsay -d -W 30

I hate cow!!

Okay if you don't like cow, then there is a solution, you can change into something else...like a dragon perhaps?

cowsay -f dragon "i'm fire dragon from the north...you should be afraid of me"

cowsay -f hellokitty "nice to meet you"

cowsay -f stegosaurus "what's going on??"

cowsay -f ghostbusters "hi how are you"

cowsay -f elephant "have a wonderful day"

cowsay -f duck "let's have some fun"

cowsay -f tux "i love lubuntu"

cowsay -f cheese "do want to eat me??"

~ have fun ~