Let’s have some fun with Linux® commands!  There’s lots of interesting and weird commands on most Linux® systems, so lets’ have some fun and try out some fun Linux® commands.

We start with one called figlet.  I know what you’re thinking, who names these things?  At least with Dr. Strange you know exactly what’ you’re getting, you’re getting a strange doctor.  figlet just sounds weird.

Image from clipartfest.com

Let’s see what we get when we try it:

Alpha:~ computerlamp$ figlet test
  m                    m
 mm#mm   mmm    mmm   mm#mm
   #    #"  #  #   "    #
   #    #""""   """m    #
   "mm  "#mm"  "mmm"    "mm

Well isn’t that neat?  It took our word and turned into a banner made of characters.  Now I’m not saying this isn’t a useful command at some point, because clearly someone made it.  I’m saying it is a rather silly command.  It’s also one of many fun Linux® commands!

There isn’t a man page for figlet, but if you look at the output of figlet -h you’ll see all sorts of flags you can use with it.

Let’s do one more.

Alpha:~ computerlamp$ figlet Hi There

 m    m   "          mmmmmmm #
 #    # mmm             #    # mm    mmm    m mm   mmm
 #mmmm#   #             #    #"  #  #"  #   #"  " #"  #
 #    #   #             #    #   #  #""""   #     #""""
 #    # mm#mm           #    #   #  "#mm"   #     "#mm"

That was fun!

There’s another way to do it, of course.  That’s called banner and it’s another of the fun Linux® commands.  It makes similar messages, but they look a little different:

Alpha:~ computerlamp$ banner -w 40
Message: Hi There
          #                         #
          #                         #
          ###########################
          ###########################
          #              #          #
          #              #          #
                         #
                         #
                         #
          #              #          #
          ###########################
          ###########################
          ###########################
          #                         #

          #              #
          ################    ####
          ################    ####
          ################     ##











                                #####
                                #####
                                   ##
                                    #
          #                         #
          #                         #
          ###########################
          ###########################
          #                         #
          #                         #
                                    #
                                   ##
                                #####
                                #####
          #                         #
          ###########################
          ###########################
          ###########################
                        #
                        ##
                        ##
          ################
          ###############
          ############
               #####
            ###########
           ##############
          ##     #     ##
          #      #       #
          #      #       #
          #      #      ##
           #     ########
            ##   ######
                 ###
          #              #
          ################
          ################
          ################
                      ##
                       ##
                     #####
                    ######
                    #####

               #####
            ###########
           ##############
          ##     #     ##
          #      #       #
          #      #       #
          #      #      ##
           #     ########
            ##   ######
                 ###

When I ran the banner command, I gave it that -w flag so that it wouldn’t fill the entire string.  Try it without any flag and see what you get.  If you don’t pass in the string for the message, it asks you what you want to use.