1ASPELL(1)              Aspell Abbreviated User's Manual              ASPELL(1)
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3
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NAME

6       aspell - interactive spell checker
7

SYNOPSIS

9       aspell [options] <command>
10

DESCRIPTION

12       aspell is a utility program that connects to the Aspell library so that
13       it can function as an ispell -a replacement, as  an  independent  spell
14       checker,  as a test utility to test out Aspell library features, and as
15       a utility for managing dictionaries used by the library.
16
17       The Aspell library contains an interface allowing other programs direct
18       access  to  it's  functions  and therefore reducing the complex task of
19       spell checking to simple library calls.  The default library  does  not
20       contain  dictionary  word  lists.  To add language dictionaries, please
21       check your distro first for modified dictionaries, otherwise look  here
22       for base language dictionaries <http://aspell.net>.
23
24       The  following  information  describes the commands and options used by
25       the Aspell Utility.
26
27       This manual page is maintained separately from the official  documenta‐
28       tion  so  it may be out of date or incomplete.  The official documenta‐
29       tion is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  See the `aspell' entry in info
30       for more complete documentation.
31

COMMANDS

33       <command> is one of:
34
35       usage, -?
36              Send  a  brief  Aspell Utility usage message to standard output.
37              This is a short summary listing more common spell-check commands
38              and options.
39
40       help   Send  a detailed Aspell Utility help message to standard output.
41              This is a complete list showing all commands,  options,  filters
42              and dictionaries.
43
44       version, -v
45              Print  version  number of Aspell Library and Utility to standard
46              output.
47
48       check <file>, -c <file>
49              Spell-check a single file.
50
51       pipe, -a
52              Run Aspell in ispell -a compatibility mode.
53
54       list   Produce a list of misspelled words from standard input.
55
56       [dump] config
57              Dump all current configuration options to standard output.
58
59       config <key>
60              Send the current value of <key> to standard output.
61
62       soundslike
63              Output the soundslike equivalent of each word entered.
64
65       munch  Generate possible root words and affixes from an input  list  of
66              words.
67
68       expand [1-4]
69              Expands the affix flags of each affix compressed word entered.
70
71       clean [strict]
72              Cleans an input word list so that every line is a valid word.
73
74       munch-list [simple] [single|multi] [keep]
75              Reduce the size of a word list via affix compression.
76
77       conv <from> <to> [<norm-form>]
78              Converts <from> one encoding <to> another.
79
80       norm (<norm-map>|<from> <norm-map> <to>) [<norm-form>]
81              Perform Unicode normalization.
82
83       [dump] dicts|filters|modes
84              Lists available dictionaries, filters, or modes.
85
86       dump|create|merge master|personal|repl <wordlist>
87              dump,  create,  or merge a master, personal, or replacement word
88              list.
89

DICTIONARY OPTIONS

91       The following options may be used to control which dictionaries to  use
92       and how they behave.
93
94       --master=<name>, -d <name>
95              Base name of the dictionary to use.  If this option is specified
96              then Aspell will either use this dictionary or die.
97
98       --dict-dir=<directory>
99              Location of the main dictionary word list.
100
101       --lang=<string>, -l <string>
102              Language to use.  It follows the same format of the  LANG  envi‐
103              ronmental  variable on most systems. It consists of the two let‐
104              ter ISO 639 language code and an optional two  letter  ISO  3166
105              country  code  after  a dash or underscore. The default value is
106              based on the value of the LC_MESSAGES locale.
107
108       --size=<string>
109              The preferred size of the dictionary word list.   This  consists
110              of  a  two char digit code describing the size of the list, with
111              typical values of: 10=tiny, 20=really small,  30=small,  40=med-
112              small, 50=med, 60=med-large, 70=large, 80=huge, 90=insane.
113
114       --variety=<string>
115              Any  extra information to distinguish this variety of dictionary
116              from other dictionaries which may have the same lang and size.
117
118       --jargon=<string>
119              Please use the variety option since it replaces jargon as a bet‐
120              ter choice.  jargon will be removed in the future.
121
122       --word-list-path=<list of directories>
123              Search path for word list information files.
124
125       --personal=<file>, -p <file>
126              Personal word list file name.
127
128       --repl=<file>
129              Replacements list file name.
130
131       --extra-dicts=<list>
132              Extra dictionaries to use.
133
134       --ignore-accents
135              This option is not yet implemented.
136

CHECKER OPTIONS

138       These options control the behavior of Aspell when checking documents.
139
140       --ignore=<integer>, -W <integer>
141              Ignore words <= <integer> characters in length.
142
143       --ignore-case, --dont-ignore-case
144              Ignore case when checking words.
145
146       --ignore-repl, --dont-ignore-repl
147              Ignore commands to store replacement pairs.
148
149       --save-repl, --dont-save-repl
150              Save the replacement word list on save all.
151
152       --sug-mode=<mode>
153              Suggestion <mode> = ultra|fast|normal|bad-spellers
154

FILTER OPTIONS

156       These options modify the behavior of the various filters.
157
158       --add-filter=<list>, --rem-filter=<list>
159              Add or remove a filter.
160
161       --add-filter-path=<paths>, --rem-filter-path=<paths>
162              Add or remove paths searched for filters.
163
164       --mode=<string>, -e, -H, -t, -n
165              Sets  the  filter  mode.  Mode is one of none, url, email, html,
166              tex or nroff.  The alternative shortcut  options  are  '-e'  for
167              email, '-H' for Html/Sgml, '-t' for Tex or '-n' for Nroff.
168
169       --encoding=<string>
170              encoding the document is expected to be in.  The default depends
171              on the current locale.
172
173       --add-email-quote=<list>, --rem-email-quote=<list>
174              Add or Remove a list of email quote characters.
175
176       --email-margin=<integer>
177              Number of chars that can appear before the quote char.
178
179       --add-html-check=<list>, --rem-html-check=<list>
180              Add or remove a list of HTML attributes to  always  check.   For
181              example, look inside alt= tags.
182
183       --add-html-skip=<list>, --rem-html-skip=<list>
184              Add  or  remove  a  list of HTML attributes to always skip while
185              spell checking.
186
187       --add-sgml-check=<list>, --rem-sgml-check=<list>
188              Add or remove a list of SGML  attributes  to  always  check  for
189              spelling.
190
191       --add-sgml-skip=<list>, --rem-sgml-skip=<list>
192              Add  or  remove  a  list of SGML attributes to always skip while
193              spell checking.
194
195       --sgml-extension=<list>
196              SGML file extensions.
197
198       --tex-check-comments, --dont-tex-check-comments
199              Check TeX comments.
200
201       --add-tex-command=<list>, --rem-tex-command=<list>
202              Add or Remove a list of TeX commands.
203

RUN-TOGETHER WORD OPTIONS

205       These may be used to control the behavior of run-together words.
206
207       --run-together, --dont-run-together, -C, -B
208              Consider run-together words valid.
209
210       --run-together-limit=<integer>
211              Maximum number of words that can be strung together.
212
213       --run-together-min=<integer>
214              Minimal length of interior words.
215

MISC OPTIONS

217       Miscellaneous options that don't fall under any other category.
218
219       --conf=<file name>
220              Main configuration file.  This file  overrides  Aspell's  global
221              defaults.
222
223       --conf-dir=<directory>
224              Location of main configuration file.
225
226       --data-dir=<directory>
227              Location of language data files.
228
229       --keyboard=<keyboard>
230              Use  this  keyboard layout for suggesting possible words.  These
231              spelling errors happen if a user accidently presses a  key  next
232              to the intended correct key.
233
234       --local-data-dir=<directory>
235              Alternative  location of language data files.  This directory is
236              searched before data-dir.
237
238       --home-dir=<directory>
239              Directory Location for personal wordlist files.
240
241       --per-conf=<file name>
242              Personal configuration file.  This file overrides options  found
243              in the global config file.
244

ASPELL UTILITY OPTIONS

246       These  options are part of the aspell Utility and work independently of
247       the library.
248
249       --backup, --dont-backup, -b, -x
250              The aspell utility creates a backup file by making  a  copy  and
251              appending .bak to file name.  This only applies when the command
252              is check <file> and the backup  file  is  only  created  if  any
253              spelling modifications take place.
254
255       --byte-offsets, --dont-byte-offsets
256              Use byte offsets instead of character offsets.
257
258       --guess, --dont-guess, -m, -P
259              Create  missing root/affix combinations not in the dictionary in
260              pipe mode.
261
262       --keymapping=aspell, --keymapping=ispell
263              The keymapping to use, either aspell for the default mapping  or
264              ispell to use the same mapping that the Ispell utility uses.
265
266       --reverse, --dont-reverse
267              Reverse the order of the suggestions list in pipe mode.
268
269       --suggest, --dont-suggest
270              Suggest  possible  replacements  in  pipe mode. If false, Aspell
271              will simply report the misspelling and make no attempt  at  sug‐
272              gestions or possible corrections.
273
274       --time, --dont-time
275              Time the load time and suggest a time in pipe mode.
276
277       In  addition Aspell will try to make sense out of Ispell's command line
278       options so that it can function as a drop in  replacement  for  Ispell.
279       If  Aspell  is  run  without any command line options it will display a
280       brief help screen and quit.
281

CONFIGURATION

283       Aspell can accept options via global or personal configuration files so
284       that  you  do  not  need to specify them each time at the command line.
285       The default global configuration file is  /etc/aspell.conf  or  another
286       file  specified by option --conf and is checked first.  The default per
287       user configuration file ~/.aspell.conf located in the  $HOME  directory
288       (or  another  file  specified by option --per-conf) is checked next and
289       overrides options set in the global config file.  Options specified  at
290       either the command line or via an environmental variable override those
291       specified by either configuration file.
292
293       Each line of the configuration file has the format:
294
295              option [value]
296
297       where option is any one of the standard library options  above  without
298       the  leading  dashes.   For  example  the  following  line will set the
299       default language to Swiss German:
300
301              lang de_CH
302
303       There may be any number of spaces between the  option  and  the  value,
304       however  it can only be spaces, i.e. there is no '=' between the option
305       name and the value.  Comments may also be included  by  preceding  them
306       with a '#' as anything from a '#' to a newline is ignored.  Blank lines
307       are also allowed.  The /etc/aspell.conf file is a good example  of  how
308       to set these options and the Aspell Manual has more detailed info.
309

SEE ALSO

311       prezip-bin(1), run-with-aspell(1), word-list-compress(1)
312
313       Aspell  is  fully  documented  in its Texinfo manual.  See the `aspell'
314       entry in info for more complete documentation.
315

SUPPORT

317       Support for Aspell can be found on the Aspell mailing lists.   Instruc‐
318       tions  for  joining  the various mailing lists (and an archive of them)
319       can be found off the Aspell  home  page  at  <http://aspell.net>.   Bug
320       reports  should  be  submitted  via the Sourceforge Tracker rather than
321       being posted to the mailing lists.
322

AUTHOR

324       This manual page was written by Brian Nelson <pyro@debian.org> based on
325       the Aspell User's Manual, Copyright © 2002 Kevin Atkinson.  Updated Nov
326       2006 by Jose Da Silva <digital@joescat.com>,  and  Dec  2006  by  Kevin
327       Atkinson <kevina@gnu.org>.
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332GNU                               2006-12-10                         ASPELL(1)
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