I follow the #perl hashtag on Mastodon. Few days ago, someone asked:

> Trying to randomize entries in a fortune text file. Not the output--the text of the human-readable fortune file. "sort -R" works on individual lines, but I want to grab multiline entries delimited by %.

To which someone else replied

> I figured it would be a two step solution. Step 1: install perl.

Another person reacted with

> <3 #perl. If you'd use a Perl one-liner let me know, I'll see if I can get one working. :)

The hashtag in this reply was why I was informed about the discussion.

Here's a sample from a typical fortune file (from ruanyf/fortunes): 

You cannot achieve the impossible without attempting the absurd.
%
Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.
%
Thinking you know something is a sure way to blind yourself.
%
Neckties strangle clear thinking.
%
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are 
+the easiest person to fool.
    -- Richard Feynman
%
The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high
+ and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our
+ mark.
    -- Michelangelo
%
I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.
    -- Gerry Spence
%
What you are is what you have been. What you'll be is what you do now.
    -- Buddha
%
What we see is mainly what we look for.
%

[download]

And here's my solution: 

perl -0x25 -MList::Util=shuffle -e 'print +(shuffle<>)[0]'

[download]

Update: As noted by hippo, the original request was more probably just to randomly sort the whole file. To do that, just remove the [0].

Update 2: Unfortunately, there's the trailing empty cookie problem. 

perl -0x25 -MList::Util=shuffle -e '@f=<>;pop@f;print shuffle@f'

[download]

map{substr$_->[0],$_->[1]||0,1}[\*||{},3],[[]],[ref qr-1,-,-1],[{}],[sub{}^*ARGV,3]

In reply to A Random Fortune Cookie by choroba

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