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20 Funny Commands of Linux or Linux is Fun in Terminal

By Avishek Kumar Under: Linux Commands On: May 21, 2013

Download Your Free eBooks NOW - 10 Free Linux eBooks for Administrators

Linux is fun! Huhhh. OK so you don’t believe me. Mind me at the end of this article you will have to believe
that Linux is actually a fun box.

20 Linux Funny Commands

1. Command: sl (Steam Locomotive)

You might be aware of command ‘ls‘ the list command and use it frequently to view the contents of a folder but
because of miss-typing sometimes you would result in ‘sl‘, how about getting a little fun in terminal and not

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“command not found“.

Install sl

root@tecmint:~# apt-get install sl (In Debian like OS)

root@tecmint:~# yum -y install sl (In Red Hat like OS)

Output

root@tecmint:~# sl

sl command

This command works even when you type ‘LS‘ and not ‘ls‘.

2. Command: telnet

No! No!! it is not as much complex as it seems. You would be familiar with telnet. Telnet is a text-oriented
bidirectional network protocol over network. Here is nothing to be installed. What you should have is a Linux
box and a working Internet.
root@tecmint:~# telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

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telnet command

3. Command: fortune

what about getting your random fortune, sometimes funny in terminal.

Install fortune

root@tecmint:~# apt-get install fortune (for aptitude based system)

root@tecmint:~# yum install fortune (for yum based system)

root@tecmint:~# fortune

You're not my type. For that matter, you're not even my species!!!
Future looks spotty. You will spill soup in late evening.
You worry too much about your job. Stop it. You are not paid enough to worry.
Your love life will be... interesting.

4. Command: rev (Reverse)

It reverse every string given to it, is not it funny.

root@tecmint:~# rev

123abc
cba321

xuniL eb ot nrob
born to be Linux

5. Command: factor

Time for some Mathematics, this command output all the possible factors of a given number.
root@tecmint:~# factor

5
5: 5

12
12: 2 2 3

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1001
1001: 7 11 13

5442134
5442134: 2 2721067

6. Command: script

OK fine this is not a command and a script but it is nice.

root@tecmint:~# for i in {1..12}; do for j in $(seq 1 $i); do echo -ne $i×$j=$((i*j))\\t;done; echo;done

1×1=1
2×1=2 2×2=4
3×1=3 3×2=6 3×3=9
4×1=4 4×2=8 4×3=12 4×4=16
5×1=5 5×2=10 5×3=15 5×4=20 5×5=25
6×1=6 6×2=12 6×3=18 6×4=24 6×5=30 6×6=36
7×1=7 7×2=14 7×3=21 7×4=28 7×5=35 7×6=42 7×7=49
8×1=8 8×2=16 8×3=24 8×4=32 8×5=40 8×6=48 8×7=56 8×8=64
9×1=9 9×2=18 9×3=27 9×4=36 9×5=45 9×6=54 9×7=63 9×8=72 9×9=81
10×1=10 10×2=20 10×3=30 10×4=40 10×5=50 10×6=60 10×7=70 10×8=80 10×9
11×1=11 11×2=22 11×3=33 11×4=44 11×5=55 11×6=66 11×7=77 11×8=88 11×9
12×1=12 12×2=24 12×3=36 12×4=48 12×5=60 12×6=72 12×7=84 12×8=96 12×9

7. Command: Cowsay

An ASCII cow in terminal that will say what ever you want.

Install Cowsay

root@tecmint:~# apt-get install cowsay (for Debian based OS)

root@tecmint:~# yum install cowsay (for Red Hat based OS)

Output

root@tecmint:~# cowsay I Love nix

____________
< I Love nix >
------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||

How about pipelineing ‘fortune command‘, described above with cowsay?

root@tecmint:~# fortune | cowsay

_________________________________________
/ Q: How many Oregonians does it take to \
| screw in a light bulb? A: Three. One to |
| screw in the light bulb and two to fend |
| off all those |
| |
| Californians trying to share the |
\ experience. /
-----------------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||

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Note: ‘|‘ is called pipeline instruction and it is used where the output of one command needs to be the input of
another command. In the above example the output of ‘fortune‘ command acts as an input of ‘cowsay‘
command. This pipeline instruction is frequently used in scripting and programming.

xcowsay is a graphical program which response similar to cowsay but in a graphical manner, hence it is X of
cowsay.
apt-get insatll xcowsay
yum install xcowsay

Output

root@tecmint:~# xcowsay I Love nix

xcowsay command

cowthink is another command just run “cowthink Linux is sooo funny” and see the difference in output of
cowsay and cowthink.
apt-get insatll cowthink
yum install cowthink

Output

root@tecmint:~# cowthink ....Linux is sooo funny

_________________________
( ....Linux is sooo funny )
-------------------------
o ^__^
o (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||

8. Command: yes

It is funny but useful as well, specially in scripts and for System Administrators where an automated
predefined response can be passed to terminal or generated.
root@tecmint:~# yes I Love Linux

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I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux
I Love Linux

Note: (Till you interrupt i.e ctrl+c).

9. Command: toilet

what? Are u kidding, huhh no! Definitely not, but for sure this command name itself is too funny, and I don’t
know from where this command gets it’s name.

Install toilet

root@tecmint:~# apt-get install toilet

root@tecmint:~# yum install toilet

Output

root@tecmint:~# toilet tecmint

mmmmmmm " m
# mmm mmm mmmmm mmm m mm mm#mm mmm mmm mmmmm
# #" # #" " # # # # #" # # #" " #" "# # # #
# #"""" # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# "#mm" "#mm" # # # mm#mm # # "mm # "#mm" "#m#" # # #

It even offers some kind of color and fonts style.

root@tecmint:~# toilet -f mono12 -F metal Tecmint.com

toilet command

Note: Figlet is another command that more or less provide such kind of effect in terminal.

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10. Command: cmatrix

You might have seen Hollywood movie ‘matrix‘ and would be fascinated with power, Neo was provided with,
to see anything and everything in matrix or you might think of an animation that looks alike Hacker‘s desktop.

Install cmatrix

root@tecmint:~# apt-get install cmatrix

root@tecmint:~# yum install cmatrix

Output

root@tecmint:~# cmatrix

cmatrix command

11. Command: oneko

OK so you believe that mouse pointer of Linux is the same silly black/white pointer where no animation lies
then I fear you could be wrong. “oneko“ is a package that will attach a “Jerry“ with you mouse pointer and
moves along with you pointer.

Install cmatrix

root@tecmint:~# apt-get install oneko

root@tecmint:~# yum install oneko

Output

root@tecmint:~# oneko

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oneko command

Note: Once you close the terminal from which oneko was run, jerry will disappear, nor will start at start-up.
You can add the application to start up and continue enjoying.

12. Fork Bomb

This is a very nasty piece of code. Run this at your own risk. This actually is a fork bomb which exponentially
multiplies itself till all the system resource is utilized and the system hangs. (To check the power of above code
you should try it once, but all at your own risk, close and save all other programs and file before running fork
bomb).
root@tecmint:~# :(){ :|:& }:

13. Command: while

The below “while” command is a script which provides you with colored date and file till you interrupt (ctrl +
c). Just copy and paste the below code in terminal.
root@tecmint:~# while true; do echo "$(date '+%D %T' | toilet -f term -F border --gay)"; sleep 1; done

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Linux while command

Note: The above script when modified with following command, will gives similar output but with a little
difference, check it in your terminal.
root@tecmint:~# while true; do clear; echo "$(date '+%D %T' | toilet -f term -F border --gay)"; sleep 1; done

14. Command: espeak

Just Turn the Knob of your multimedia speaker to full before pasting this command in your terminal and let us
know how you felt listening the god’s voice.

Install espeak

root@tecmint:~# apt-get install espeak

root@tecmint:~# yum install espeak

Output

root@tecmint:~# espeak "Tecmint is a very good website dedicated to Foss Community"

15. Command: aafire

How about fire in your terminal. Just type “aafire” in the terminal, without quotes and see the magic. Press any
key to interrupt the program.

Install aafire

root@tecmint:~# apt-get install libaa-bin

Output

root@tecmint:~# aafire

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aafire command

16. Command: bb

First install “apt-get insatll bb” and then, type “bb” in terminal and see what happens.
root@tecmint:~# bb

bb command

17. Command: url

Won’t it be an awesome feeling for you if you can update you twitter status from command line in front of
your friend and they seems impressed. OK just replace username, password and your status message with
your’s username, password and “your status message“.
root@tecmint:~# url -u YourUsername:YourPassword -d status="Your status message" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

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18. ASCIIquarium

How it will be to get an aquarium in terminal.

root@tecmint:~# apt-get install libcurses-perl
root@tecmint:~# cd /tmp
root@tecmint:~# wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/K/KB/KBAUCOM/Term-Animation-2.4.tar.gz
root@tecmint:~# tar -zxvf Term-Animation-2.4.tar.gz
root@tecmint:~# cd Term-Animation-2.4/
root@tecmint:~# perl Makefile.PL && make && make test
root@tecmint:~# make install

Install ASCIIquarium

Now Download and Install ASCIIquarium.

root@tecmint:~# cd /tmp
root@tecmint:~# wget http://www.robobunny.com/projects/asciiquarium/asciiquarium.tar.gz
root@tecmint:~# tar -zxvf asciiquarium.tar.gz
root@tecmint:~# cd asciiquarium_1.1/
root@tecmint:~# cp asciiquarium /usr/local/bin
root@tecmint:~# chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/asciiquarium

And finally run “asciiquarium” or “/usr/local/bin/asciiquarium“ in terminal without quotes and be a part of
magic that will be taking place in front of your eyes.
root@tecmint:~# asciiquarium

aquarium command

19. Command: funny manpages

First install “apt-get install funny-manpages” and then run man pages for the commands below. Some of them
may be 18+, run at your own risk, they all are too funny.
baby
celibacy
condom
date
echo
flame
flog

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gong
grope, egrope, fgrope
party
rescrog
rm
rtfm
tm
uubp
woman (undocumented)
xkill
xlart
sex
strfry

root@tecmint:~# man baby

20. Linux Tweaks

It is time for you to have some one liner tweaks.

root@tecmint:~# world

bash: world: not found

root@tecmint:~# touch girls\ boo**

touch: cannot touch `girls boo**': Permission denied

root@tecmint:~# nice man woman

No manual entry for woman

root@tecmint:~# ^How did the sex change operation go?^

bash: :s^How did the sex change operation go?^ : substitution failed

root@tecmint:~# %blow

bash: fg: %blow: no such job

root@tecmint:~# make love

make: *** No rule to make target `love'. Stop.

$ [ whereis my brain?
sh: 2: [: missing ]

% man: why did you get a divorce?

man:: Too many arguments.

% !:say, what is saccharine?

Bad substitute.

server@localhost:/srv$ \(-
bash: (-: command not found

Linux is sexy: who | grep -i blonde | date; cd ~; unzip; touch; strip; finger; mount; gasp; yes; uptime;
umount; sleep (If you know what i mean)

There are certain other but these don’t work on all the system and hence not included in this article. Some of
them are man dog , filter, banner, etc.

Have fun, you can say me thanks later :) yup your comment is highly appreciated which encourages us write
more. Tell us which command you liked the most. Stay tuned i will be back soon with another article worth
reading.

Bio Latest Posts

Avishek Kumar

12 of 20 02/28/2014 10:33 AM
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I am a major in computer science, love to research nix. I love to write codes and scripts, review
distros, experiment Foss Technologies, write technical articles, Hack, of course Ethically. I am
working as System Administrator (nix) for a NGO.

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6. 12 Useful “df” Commands to Check Disk Space in Linux

26 Responses

1. q says:

13 of 20 02/28/2014 10:33 AM
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May 21, 2013 at 10:32 am

great post, thanks! just wanted to

hint that the forkbomb in nr. 12 got replaced by smiliefaces… ;)

Reply

2. hadrons123 says:
May 21, 2013 at 1:34 pm

fortune and cmatrix not available in f19.

Reply

kashif says:
January 16, 2014 at 4:51 pm

http://www.asty.org/cmatrix/

Reply

3. Airwon says:
May 21, 2013 at 5:59 pm

Fork Bomb: (remove all spaces; but include a space in place of word space)
: ( ) {space: | : &space} ; :

Reply

4. John says:
May 21, 2013 at 6:08 pm

For f18, I had to use fortune-mod instead of fortune. Probably same for f19. Also yum install works for
asciiquarium instead of downloading from source, however no toilet or cmatrix…

Reply

wuxu92 says:
November 5, 2013 at 2:23 pm

get cmatrix rpm pack here: http://pkgs.org/fedora-19/rpm-sphere-i586/cmatrix-

1.2a-319.2.i686.rpm.html
this works fine

Reply

5. miniminiyo says:
May 29, 2013 at 1:52 am

hahaha very good collection, always glad to see the “touch girls \ boo **

Reply

6. Subhojyoti Gupta says:

July 5, 2013 at 1:22 am

14 of 20 02/28/2014 10:33 AM
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Obviously very good….Want to learn something more interesting….Waiting to see more interesting
something.

Reply

7. julian says:
August 22, 2013 at 3:14 am

the url command does not work.

Reply

Ravi Saive says:

August 22, 2013 at 2:49 pm

Is it thrown any error? If yes! do post here.

Reply

8. Kevin says:
August 26, 2013 at 9:57 pm

None of the Commands work on debian… I get bash command not found…

Reply

Avishek says:
August 27, 2013 at 10:45 am

@ kevin, All the commands will work on any distro, with a little +/-
if u don’t have packages installed, apt the required package.

Note: All the above output are generated on a Debain System, only.
:-)

Reply

Nerdgurl says:
October 17, 2013 at 11:08 am

i know right

Reply

9. Rishi Raj says:

September 4, 2013 at 6:13 pm

i liked this the most here:

root@tecmint:~# make love

make: *** No rule to make target `love’. Stop.

thanks for kicking of imagination power of us nix users.

Reply

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10. david says:

September 29, 2013 at 2:54 pm

One of the best post I have read, thanks.

Reply

Avishek Kumar says:

January 2, 2014 at 2:46 pm

Thanks @ david, for Appraisal.

Reply

11. Peter says:

October 9, 2013 at 7:30 am

Thank you so much for posting this!

I had a blast:-)

Reply

Avishek Kumar says:

January 2, 2014 at 2:53 pm

Thanks @ Peter

Reply

12. Nerdgurl says:

October 17, 2013 at 11:06 am

None of these commands work!! i wasted like 2 hours trying these commands are these supposed to be
done in emacs or something??

Reply

13. Nerdgurl says:

October 17, 2013 at 11:07 am

none of these work are these emac commands or something??

Reply

Avishek Kumar says:

January 2, 2014 at 2:47 pm

Dear Nerdgurl, run all the above commands directly in your Shell/ Terminal

Reply

14. jusgif says:

November 8, 2013 at 8:42 am

16 of 20 02/28/2014 10:33 AM
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@Nerdgurl, why on earth would you do this in emacs?

They are all terminal commands, open your terminal and install the programs as instructed and then type
in the command as instructed like you would run any other command in terminal and there you go… your
name is rather deceiving because any nerd would know how to run a terminal command.

Reply

15. Chethan says:

December 24, 2013 at 3:23 pm

Awesome post!

Reply

Avishek Kumar says:

December 25, 2013 at 1:39 pm

Thanks @ chetan, for your feedback.

Reply

16. ritesh kumar says:

December 29, 2013 at 1:23 pm

do you know about LEMUR(indri-5.5)

Reply

17. Shashwat says:

January 30, 2014 at 10:17 am

Nice and amazing post Abhishek ji .

Reply

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