Shell script for printing whatis for executables in /usr/bin folder randomly, just to make you curious and maybe you will find some new command :)

daily-whatis.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# File to store previously printed commands
printed_commands_file=~/.local/share/daily-whatis/databases/printed_commands_db.txt

# Check if the file exists, if not create it
if [ ! -f "$printed_commands_file" ]; then
    mkdir -p "$(dirname "$printed_commands_file")"  # Ensure directory exists
    touch "$printed_commands_file"  # Create the file
fi

# Function to select a random command from /usr/bin folder
select_random_command() {
    local commands=("/usr/bin"/*)
    if [ ${#commands[@]} -eq 1 ]; then
        echo "Error: No commands found in /usr/bin directory."
        exit 1
    fi
    local random_index=$((RANDOM % ${#commands[@]}))
    echo "${commands[$random_index]}"
}

# Function to get the whatis entry for a command
get_whatis_entry() {
    local command="$1"
    whatis "$(basename "$command")"
}

# Read the file into an array
readarray -t printed_commands < "$printed_commands_file"

# Select a random command and ensure it's not printed before
while true; do
    random_command=$(select_random_command)
    # Check if the command is not already printed
    if [[ ! " ${printed_commands[@]} " =~ " ${random_command} " ]]; then
        whatis_entry=$(get_whatis_entry "$random_command")
        # Print the whatis entry
        echo "Todays whatis: $whatis_entry"
        # Add the command to printed commands list
        echo "$random_command" >> "$printed_commands_file"
        break
    fi
done