1 .TH ASPELL 1 "2006-12-10" "GNU" "Aspell Abbreviated User's Manual"
3 aspell \- interactive spell checker
6 .I "[options] <command>"
10 is a utility program that connects to the Aspell library so that it can
13 replacement, as an independent spell checker, as a test utility to test
14 out Aspell library features, and as a utility for managing dictionaries
17 The Aspell library contains an interface allowing other programs direct
18 access to its 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>.
24 The following information describes the commands and options used by the
27 This manual page is maintained separately from the
28 official documentation so it may be out of date or incomplete. The
29 official documentation is maintained as a Texinfo manual. See the
30 .RB "`\|" aspell "\|'"
33 for more complete documentation.
38 \fBusage\fR, \fB\-?\fR
39 Send a brief Aspell Utility usage message to standard output. This is
40 a short summary listing more common spell\-check commands and options.
43 Send a detailed Aspell Utility help message to standard output. This is
44 a complete list showing all commands, options, filters and dictionaries.
46 \fBversion\fR, \fB\-v\fR
47 Print version number of Aspell Library and Utility to standard output.
49 \fBcheck\fR \fI<file>\fR, \fB\-c\fR \fI<file>\fR
50 Spell\-check a single file.
58 Produce a list of misspelled words from standard input.
60 [\fBdump\fR] \fBconfig\fR
61 Dump all current configuration options to standard output.
64 Send the current value of
69 Output the soundslike equivalent of each word entered.
72 Generate possible root words and affixes from an input list of words.
74 \fBexpand\fR [\fB1\-4\fR]
75 Expands the affix flags of each affix compressed word entered.
77 \fBclean\fR [\fBstrict\fR]
78 Cleans an input word list so that every line is a valid word.
80 \fBmunch\-list\fR [\fBsimple\fR] [\fBsingle\fR|\fBmulti\fR] [\fBkeep\fR]
81 Reduce the size of a word list via affix compression.
83 \fBconv\fR \fI<from> <to>\fR [\fI<norm-form>\fR]
90 \fBnorm\fR (\fI<norm\-map>\fR|\fI<from> <norm\-map> <to>\fR) [\fI<norm-form>\fR]
91 Perform Unicode normalization.
93 [\fBdump\fR] \fBdicts\fR|\fBfilters\fR|\fBmodes\fR
94 Lists available dictionaries, filters, or modes.
96 \fBdump\fR|\fBcreate\fR|\fBmerge master\fR|\fBpersonal\fR|\fBrepl\fR \fI<wordlist>\fR
97 dump, create, or merge a master, personal, or replacement word list.
98 .SH DICTIONARY OPTIONS
99 The following options may be used to control which dictionaries to use
102 \fB\-\-master=\fR\fI<name>\fR, \fB\-d\fR \fI<name>\fR
103 Base name of the dictionary to use. If this option is specified then
104 Aspell will either use this dictionary or die.
106 \fB\-\-dict\-dir=\fR\fI<directory>\fR
107 Location of the main dictionary word list.
109 \fB\-\-lang=\fR\fI<string>\fR, \fB\-l\fR \fI<string>\fR
110 Language to use. It follows the same format of the LANG environmental
111 variable on most systems. It consists of the two letter ISO 639 language
112 code and an optional two letter ISO 3166 country code after a dash or
113 underscore. The default value is based on the value of the LC_MESSAGES
116 \fB\-\-size=\fR\fI<string>\fR
117 The preferred size of the dictionary word list. This consists of a two
118 char digit code describing the size of the list, with typical values of:
119 10=tiny, 20=really small, 30=small, 40=med-small, 50=med, 60=med-large,
120 70=large, 80=huge, 90=insane.
122 \fB\-\-variety=\fR\fI<string>\fR
123 Any extra information to distinguish this variety of dictionary from
124 other dictionaries which may have the same \fIlang\fR and \fIsize\fR.
126 \fB\-\-jargon=\fR\fI<string>\fR
127 Please use the \fIvariety\fR option since it replaces \fIjargon\fR as a
128 better choice. \fIjargon\fR will be removed in the future.
130 \fB\-\-word\-list\-path=\fR\fI<list of directories>\fR
131 Search path for word list information files.
133 \fB\-\-personal=\fR\fI<file>\fR, \fB\-p\fR \fI<file>\fR
134 Personal word list file name.
136 \fB\-\-repl=\fR\fI<file>\fR
137 Replacements list file name.
139 \fB\-\-extra\-dicts=\fR\fI<list>\fR
140 Extra dictionaries to use.
142 \fB\-\-ignore\-accents\fR
143 This option is not yet implemented.
145 These options control the behavior of Aspell when checking documents.
147 \fB\-\-ignore=\fR\fI<integer>\fR, \fB\-W\fR \fI<integer>\fR
150 characters in length.
152 \fB\-\-ignore\-case\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-ignore\-case\fR
153 Ignore case when checking words.
155 \fB\-\-ignore\-repl\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-ignore\-repl\fR
156 Ignore commands to store replacement pairs.
158 \fB\-\-save\-repl\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-save\-repl\fR
159 Save the replacement word list on save all.
161 \fB\-\-sug\-mode=\fR\fI<mode>\fR
164 \= \fBultra\fR|\fBfast\fR|\fBnormal\fR|\fBbad-spellers\fR
166 These options modify the behavior of the various filters.
168 \fB\-\-add\-filter=\fR\fI<list>\fR, \fB\-\-rem\-filter=\fR\fI<list>\fR
169 Add or remove a filter.
171 \fB\-\-add\-filter\-path=\fR\fI<paths>\fR, \fB\-\-rem\-filter\-path=\fR\fI<paths>\fR
172 Add or remove paths searched for filters.
174 \fB\-\-mode=\fR\fI<string>\fR, \fB\-e\fR, \fB\-H\fR, \fB\-t\fR, \fB\-n\fR
175 Sets the filter mode. \fIMode\fR is one of none, url, email, html, tex
176 or nroff. The alternative shortcut options are '-e' for email, '-H'
177 for Html/Sgml, '-t' for Tex or '-n' for Nroff.
179 \fB\-\-encoding=\fR\fI<string>\fR
180 encoding the document is expected to be in. The default depends on the
183 \fB\-\-add-email\-quote=\fR\fI<list>\fR, \fB\-\-rem-email\-quote=\fR\fI<list>\fR
184 Add or Remove a list of email quote characters.
186 \fB\-\-email\-margin=\fR\fI<integer>\fR
187 Number of chars that can appear before the quote char.
189 \fB\-\-add\-html\-check=\fR\fI<list>\fR, \fB\-\-rem\-html\-check=\fR\fI<list>\fR
190 Add or remove a list of HTML attributes to always check. For example,
191 look inside alt= tags.
193 \fB\-\-add\-html\-skip=\fR\fI<list>\fR, \fB\-\-rem\-html\-skip=\fR\fI<list>\fR
194 Add or remove a list of HTML attributes to always skip while spell
197 \fB\-\-add\-sgml\-check=\fR\fI<list>\fR, \fB\-\-rem\-sgml\-check=\fR\fI<list>\fR
198 Add or remove a list of SGML attributes to always check for spelling.
200 \fB\-\-add\-sgml\-skip=\fR\fI<list>\fR, \fB\-\-rem\-sgml\-skip=\fR\fI<list>\fR
201 Add or remove a list of SGML attributes to always skip while spell
204 \fB\-\-sgml\-extension=\fR\fI<list>\fR
205 SGML file extensions.
207 \fB\-\-tex\-check\-comments\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-tex\-check\-comments\fR
210 \fB\-\-add\-tex\-command=\fR\fI<list>\fR, \fB\-\-rem\-tex\-command=\fR\fI<list>\fR
211 Add or Remove a list of TeX commands.
212 .SH RUN\-TOGETHER WORD OPTIONS
213 These may be used to control the behavior of run\-together words.
215 \fB\-\-run\-together\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-run\-together\fR, \fB\-C\fR, \fB\-B\fR
216 Consider run\-together words valid.
218 \fB\-\-run\-together\-limit=\fR\fI<integer>\fR
219 Maximum number of words that can be strung together.
221 \fB\-\-run\-together\-min=\fR\fI<integer>\fR
222 Minimal length of interior words.
224 Miscellaneous options that don't fall under any other category.
226 \fB\-\-conf=\fR\fI<file name>\fR
227 Main configuration file. This file overrides Aspell's global defaults.
229 \fB\-\-conf\-dir=\fR\fI<directory>\fR
230 Location of main configuration file.
232 \fB\-\-data\-dir=\fR\fI<directory>\fR
233 Location of language data files.
235 \fB\-\-keyboard=\fR\fI<keyboard>\fR
236 Use this keyboard layout for suggesting possible words. These spelling
237 errors happen if a user accidently presses a key next to the intended
240 \fB\-\-local\-data\-dir=\fR\fI<directory>\fR
241 Alternative location of language data files. This directory is searched
244 \fB\-\-home\-dir=\fR\fI<directory>\fR
245 Directory Location for personal wordlist files.
247 \fB\-\-per\-conf=\fR\fI<file name>\fR
248 Personal configuration file. This file overrides options found in the
250 .SH ASPELL UTILITY OPTIONS
251 These options are part of the
253 Utility and work independently of the library.
255 \fB--backup\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-backup\fR, \fB\-b\fR, \fB\-x\fR
256 The aspell utility creates a backup file by making a copy and appending
258 to file name. This only applies when the command is
260 and the backup file is only created if any spelling modifications take
263 \fB\-\-byte\-offsets\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-byte\-offsets\fR
264 Use byte offsets instead of character offsets.
266 \fB\-\-guess\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-guess\fR, \fB\-m\fR, \fB\-P\fR
267 Create missing root/affix combinations not in the dictionary in
270 \fB\-\-keymapping=aspell\fR, \fB\-\-keymapping=ispell\fR
271 The keymapping to use, either
273 for the default mapping or
275 to use the same mapping that the Ispell utility uses.
277 \fB\-\-reverse\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-reverse\fR
278 Reverse the order of the suggestions list in pipe mode.
280 \fB\-\-suggest\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-suggest\fR
281 Suggest possible replacements in pipe mode. If false, Aspell will simply
282 report the misspelling and make no attempt at suggestions or possible
285 \fB\-\-time\fR, \fB\-\-dont\-time\fR
286 Time the load time and suggest a time in pipe mode.
288 In addition Aspell will try to make sense out of Ispell's command line
289 options so that it can function as a drop in replacement for Ispell. If
290 Aspell is run without any command line options it will display a brief
291 help screen and quit.
293 Aspell can accept options via global or personal configuration files so
294 that you do not need to specify them each time at the command line. The
295 default global configuration file is
296 .I "/etc/aspell.conf"
297 or another file specified by option \fI\-\-conf\fR and is checked first.
298 The default per user configuration file
302 directory (or another file specified by option \fI\-\-per\-conf\fR) is
303 checked next and overrides options set in the global config file.
304 Options specified at either the command line or via an environmental
305 variable override those specified by either configuration file.
307 Each line of the configuration file has the format:
310 \fBoption\fR \fI[value]\fR
315 is any one of the standard library options above without the leading
316 dashes. For example the following line will set the default language to
323 There may be any number of spaces between the option and the value,
324 however it can only be spaces, i.e. there is no '=' between the option
325 name and the value. Comments may also be included by preceding them
326 with a '#' as anything from a '#' to a newline is ignored. Blank lines
327 are also allowed. The \fI/etc/aspell.conf\fR file is a good example of
328 how to set these options and the Aspell Manual has more detailed info.
331 .BR aspell\-import (1),
333 .BR run\-with\-aspell (1),
334 .BR word\-list\-compress (1)
336 Aspell is fully documented in its Texinfo manual. See the
337 .RB "`\|" aspell "\|'"
340 for more complete documentation.
342 Support for Aspell can be found on the Aspell mailing lists.
343 Instructions for joining the various mailing lists (and an archive of
344 them) can be found off the Aspell home page at <http://aspell.net>.
345 Bug reports should be submitted via GitHub Issues rather than being
346 posted to the mailing lists.
348 This manual page was written by Brian Nelson <pyro@debian.org> based
349 on the Aspell User's Manual, Copyright \(co 2002 Kevin Atkinson.
350 Updated Nov 2006 by Jose Da Silva <digital@joescat.com>, and Dec 2006
351 by Kevin Atkinson <kevina@gnu.org>.