NoseGuy

is a module in the xsceensaver package.

is found on many distribution on Linux

After you load xscreensaver you can get it started by typing xscreensaver-demo at a shell prompt This will open a dialog box which includes a scroll window. This list is alphabetized. Scroll to noseguy, and use the preview option

By default noseguy uses a sript file in /usr/share/games/fortunes The name of the file is zippy. If you look at the file you'll see text delimited with the % sign. This is what noseguy reads as he wonders around your screen. There is also a database file called zippy.dat. This file is unique to the zippy text file. It uses the % sign in zippy to decide how much text to use. And sets up a random reading pattern.

It is a good idea to carefully examine the zippy file now.

You can't add text to the zippy file as the zippy.dat file will become confused.

The way to get noseguy to work with your text is to modify zippy. I renamed zippy, zippy22. Using a copy command #cp zippy zippy22. I did the same to the correponding zippy.dat by using #cp zippy.dat zippy22.dat. Then I removed zippy and zippy.dat using #rm zippy*.

Now you are ready to make your own zippy text file.

Use an editor like vi to open a file called zippy in the /usr/share/games/fortunes. Set your text up the same way as the original zippy text file. Start with a sentence hit newline(enter) and on that newline enter the character %. Hit newline again and on this line enter text. When finished with that line hit newline, and then enter the delimiting character %. Your file should start with a line of text and end with %

Now that you have made your own zippy text, it's time to make your zippy.dat file This is simple.

Use the command #strfile -c% zippy zippy.dat (You might want to check the man pages for strline using the man strfile command in your shell.) Important you must be root to man strfile or use it

Restart noseguy

last modified 8/20/2003