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   Next: 4. Library Interface Up: Aspell .28.3 alpha A Previous: 2.
   Getting Started   Contents
   Subsections
     * 3.1 As a ``ispell -a'' replacement
          + 3.1.1 Format of the Data Stream
               o 3.1.1.1 Notes of Storing Replacement Pairs
     * 3.2 As an independent spell checker
     * 3.3 As an utility to manage word lists
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                             3. The Aspell utility
                                       
   The Aspell utility is a multipurpose utility that can function as a
   ``ispell -a'' replacement, as an independent spell checker, and as a
   utility for managing dictionaries. Here is a brief summary of Aspell's
   command line options.
   
     aspell [options] «command»
     
   «command» is one of:
   
   check «file»
          to check a file
          
   pipe
          'ispell -a' compatible mode.
          
   dump config
          dump the current configuration to stdout
          
   dump|create|merge maser|personal|repl [word list]
          dumps, creates, or merges a master, personal, or replacement
          word list.
          
   [options] is any or all of the following standard aspell library
   options:
   
   -d, --master=«base»
          main word list base name
          
   -p, --personal=«file»
          personal word list file name
          
   --repl=«file»
          replacements list file name
          
   --lang=«lang»
          default language to use
          
   --dict-dir=«dir»
          location of the main word list
          
   --data-dir=«dir»
          location of language data files
          
   --[dont-]ignore-repl
          [don't] ignore commands to store replacement pairs
          
   --conf=«file»
          main configuration file
          
   --conf-dir=«dir»
          location of main configuration file
          
   in addition to
   
   --reverse
          reverse the order of the suggestions list.
          
   -b --backup
          create a backup file by appending ``.bak'' to the file name.
          (Only applies when the command is check)
          
   -x --dont-backup
          don't create a backup file
          
   In addition Aspell with try to make seance out of Ispell's command
   line options so that it can function as a drop in replacement for
   Ispell when used is ``-a'' mode.
   
   If Aspell is specified with out any command line options it will
   display a brief help screen and quit.
   
   Aspell can also make use of a global or user configuration file. Each
   line of the configuration file has the format:
   
          «option» [args]
          
   where option is any one of the standard library options above without
   the leading dashes. For example the following line will set the
   default language to German:
   
          lang german
          
   Anything from a ``#'' to a newline is ignored. The global
   configuration file is usually named ``aspell.conf'' and is found in
   the etc directory while the user configuration file is usually named
   ``.aspell.conf'' and is found in the users home directory. Use
   ``aspell dump config'' to found out what they are for your
   installation.
   
   The environmental variable ASPELL_CONF may also be used and it
   overrides any options set in the configuration file. The format of the
   string is exactly the same as the configuration file except that
   semicolons ( ; ) are used instead of newlines.
   
                      3.1 As a ``ispell -a'' replacement
                                       
   To actually use Aspell as an Ispell replacement simply follow the
   directions in section 2.6.
   
   When given the pipe or -a command aspell goes into a pipe mode the is
   compatible with ispell with a few extra additions.
   
3.1.1 Format of the Data Stream

   In this mode, Aspell prints a one-line version identification message,
   and then begins reading lines of input. For each input line, a single
   line is written to the standard output for each word checked for
   spelling on the line. If the word was found in the main dictionary, or
   your personal dictionary, then the line contains only a '*'.
   
   If the word is not in the dictionary, but there are suggestions, then
   the line contains an '&', a space, the misspelled word, a space, the
   number of near misses, the number of characters between the beginning
   of the line and the beginning of the misspelled word, a colon, another
   space, and a list of the suggestions separated by commas and spaces.
   
   Finally, if the word does not appear in the dictionary, and there are
   no suggestions, then the line contains a '#', a space, the misspelled
   word, a space, and the character offset from the beginning of the
   line. Each sentence of text input is terminated with an additional
   blank line, indicating that ispell has completed processing the input
   line.
   
   These output lines can be summarized as follows:
   
   OK:
          *
          
   Suggestions:
          & «original» «count» «offset»: «miss», «miss», ...
          
   None:
          # «original» «offset»
          
   When in the -a mode, Aspell will also accept lines of single words
   prefixed with any of '*', '&', '@', '+', '-', '~', '#', '!', '%', or
   '^'. A line starting with '*' tells ispell to insert the word into the
   user's dictionary. A line starting with '&' tells ispell to insert an
   all-lowercase version of the word into the user's dictionary. A line
   starting with '@' causes ispell to accept this word in the future. A
   line starting with '+', '-', or '~', is ignored for ispell
   compatibility. A line prefixed with '#' will cause the personal
   dictionary to be saved. A line prefixed with '!' will turn on terse
   mode (see below), and a line prefixed with '%' will return ispell to
   normal (non-terse) mode. Any input following the prefix characters
   '+', '-', '#', '!', '~', or '%' is ignored, as is any input following.
   To allow spell-checking of lines beginning with these characters, a
   line starting with '^' has that character removed before it is passed
   to the spell-checking code. It is recommended that programmatic
   interfaces prefix every data line with an uparrow to protect
   themselves against future changes in Aspell.
   
   To summarize these:
   
   * «word»
          Add a word to the personal dictionary
          
   & «word»
          Insert the all-lowercase version of the word in the personal
          dictionary
          
   @ «word»
          Accept the word, but leave it out of the dictionary
          
   #
          Save the current personal dictionary
          
   ~
          Ignored
          
   +
          Ignored
          
   -
          Ignored
          
   !
          Enter terse mode
          
   %
          Exit terse mode
          
   ^
          Spell-check the rest of the line
          
   In terse mode, Aspell will not print lines beginning with '*', which
   indicate correct words. This significantly improves running speed when
   the driving program is going to ignore correct words anyway.
   
   In addition to the above commands which are designed for Ispell
   compatibility Aspell also supports its own extension. All Aspell
   extensions follow the following format.
   
     $$«command» [data]
     
   Where data may or may not be required depending on the particular
   command. Aspell currently supports the following command.
   
   m which
          Print out the current mode
          
   m none
          Do not use any special mode.
          
   m url
          Enter email, URL, and host name skipping mode.
          
   s «word1»,«word2»
          Returns the score of the two words based roughly on how aspell
          would score them.
          
   Sw «word»
          Returns the soundlike equivalent of the word.
          
   Sl «word»
          Returns a list of words that have the same soundlike
          equivalent.
          
   Pw «word»
          Returns the phoneme equivalent of the word.
          
   pp
          Returns a list of all words in the current personal wordlist.
          
   ps
          Returns a list of all words in the current session dictionary.
          
   l
          Returns the current language name.
          
   ra «mis»,«cor»
          Add the word pair to the replacement dictionary for latter use.
          Returns nothing.
          
   ric
          Returns the status of the ignore_replacements flag which will
          either be a 1 or a 0.
          
   ri0
          Sets the ignore_replacement flag to false (the default).
          Returns nothing.
          
   ri1
          Sets the ignore_replacement flag to true. Returns nothing.
          
   Anything returned is returned on its own line line. All lists returned
   have the following format
   
     «num of items»: «item1», «item2», «etc»
     
   (Note: part of this section was directly copied out of the Ispell
   manual)
   
  3.1.1.1 Notes of Storing Replacement Pairs
  
   As of version .27 of Aspell storing replacements pairs has a memory.
   Which means if you first store the replacement pair:
   
     sicolagest -> psycolagest
     
   then store the replacement pair
   
     psycolagest -> psychologist
     
   The replacement pair
   
     sicolagest -> psychologist
     
   will also get stored so that you don't have to worry about it.
   
                      3.2 As an independent spell checker
                                       
   To use Aspell as an independent spell checker type
   
     aspell check «filename»
     
   Where «filename» is the file you want to check. Aspell will create a
   new file named «filename».checked with the corrections and the
   original file is untouched.
   
                    3.3 As an utility to manage word lists
                                       
   To create the main word list from a list of words use the command
   
     aspell --lang=«lang» create master ./«base» < «wordlist»
     
   where «base» is the name of the word list and «word list» is the list
   of words seperated by white space. The ``./'' is important because
   without it aspell will create the word list in the normal word list
   directory.
   
   This will create two files in the current directory. To use the new
   word list copy the files to the normal word list directory (use
   ``aspell dump config'' to find out what it is) and use the option
   --master=«base».
   
   A personal and replacement word list can be created in a similar
   fashion.
   
   Please note that Aspell currently does not support any sort of affix
   compression like Ispell does. Thus Ispell's word list will not work as
   is. In order to use Ispell's word lists simply pipe the word list
   through ``ispell -e'' to expand the munched word lists.
   
   The replacement word has each replacement pair on its own line in the
   following format
   
          «misspelled word»: «correction»
          
   The dump command will simply dump the contents of a word list to
   stdout in a formate than can be read back in with aspell create.
   
   If no word list is specified the command will act on the default one.
   For example the command
   
     aspell dump master
     
   will simply dump the contents of the current master word list to
   stdout.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   next up previous contents 
   Next: 4. Library Interface Up: Aspell .28.3 alpha A Previous: 2.
   Getting Started   Contents
   
   
    Kevin Atkinson 1999-11-20
