Next: 4. Library Interface Up: Aspell .32.5 alpha A Previous: 2. Getting Started Contents
Subsections

- 3.1 As an independent spell checker
- 3.2 As a ``ispell -a'' replacement
  - 3.2.1 Format of the Data Stream
    - 3.2.1.1 Notes of Storing Replacement Pairs
- 3.3 As an utility to manage word lists
  - 3.3.1 Creating a Individual Word List
  - 3.3.2 Format of the Replacement Word List
  - 3.3.3 Dumping the contents of the word list
- 3.4 Notes on options word list pertaining to which word lists to use
- 3.5 Notes on the options to control run-together words
- 3.6 Notes on various filters and filter mode
  - 3.6.1 None Mode
  - 3.6.2 Url Filter/Mode
  - 3.6.3 Email Filter/Mode
  - 3.6.4 SGML Filter/Mode
  - 3.6.5 TEX Filter/Mode
- 3.7 Notes on the different suggestion modes

# 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. For a more detailed explanation of how to use Aspell to perform a particular task please see one of the proceeding sections.

> aspell [options] «command»

«command» is one of:

check «file»
  to check a file (see section 3.1)
pipe
  'ispell -a' compatible mode (see section 3.2).
list
  produce a list of misspelled words from standard input
config
  dump the current configuration to stdout
soundslike
  returns the soundslike equivalent for each word entered
filter
  passes standard input through the same set of filters that would be used to spell check a document.
help
  display online help
version
  prints a version line
dump|create|merge master|personal|repl [word list]
  dumps, creates, or merges a master, personal, or replacement word list (see section 3.3).

[options] is any or all of the following standard aspell library options:

--conf=«file»
  main configuration file
--conf-dir=«dir»
  location of main configuration file
--data-dir=«dir»
  location of language data files
--local-data-dir=«dir»
  alternative location of language data files. This directory is searched before data-dir. It defaults to the same directory the actual main word list is in (which is not necessarily dict-dir).
--add|rem-filter=«str»
  add or removes a filter
--home-dir=«dir»
  location for personal files
-W,--ignore=«integer»
  ignore words <= n chars
--[dont-]ignore-case
  ignore case when checking words
--[dont-]ignore-accents
  ignore accents when checking words
--[dont-]ignore-repl
  ignore commands to store replacement pairs
--[dont-]save-repl
  save the replacement word list on save all
--lang=«str»
  default language to use
--mode=«str»
  sets the filter mode. Mode is one if none, url, email, sgml, or tex.
-e,--mode=email
  enter Email mode.
-H,--mode=sgml
  enter Html/Sgml mode.
-t,--mode=tex
  enter TEX mode.
--per-conf=«file»
  personal configuration file
-p,--personal=«file»
  personal word list file name
--repl=«file»
  replacements list file name
--sug-mode=«mode»
  suggestion mode = fast | normal | bad-spellers (see section 3.7)

in addition top options to control which dictionaries to use and how they behave (see section 3.4):

-d,--master=«name»
  main word list base name
--dict-dir=«dir»
  location of the main word list
--add|rem-extra-dicts=<str>
  extra dictionaries to use
--[dont-]strip-accents
  strip accents from all words in the dictionary

in addition to options to control the behavior of run-together words(see section 3.5):

-C|--run-together
  consider run-together words legal
-B|--dont-run-together
  don't consider run-together words legal
--run-together-limit=<int>
  maximum numbers that can be strung together
--run-together-min=<int>
  minimal length of interior words

plus options to modify the behavior of the various filters (see section 3.6):

--add|rem-email-quote=«char»
  email quote characters
--email-margin=«integer»
  num chars that can appear before the quote char
--add|rem-sgml-check=«str»
  sgml tags to always check.
--add|rem-sgml-extension=«str»
  sgml file extensions.
--add|rem-tex-command=«str»
  TEX commands
--[dont-]tex-check-comments
  check TEX comments

in addition to some aspell utility specific command:

-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.
--[dont-]time
  time load time and suggest time in pipe mode.
--[dont-]reverse
  reverse the order of the suggestions list.

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 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 over right the original file with the corrected version. The original version is saved as «filename».bak unless it is turned off with the dont-backup option.

If the extension is .tex in will check the file in tex mode unless overridden by the mode option. If the extension is one of the extensions in the sgml-extension option (see section 3.6.4) it will check the file in sgml unless overridden by the mode option.

The exit command saves the file with the corrections made so far. If you want to quite without saving use control-C.

#
3.2 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 that is compatible with ``ispell -a''. Aspell also defines its own set of extensions to ispell pipe mode.

##
3.2.1 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 '+', followed immediately by a valid mode will cause aspell to parse future input according the syntax of that formatter. A line consisting solely of a '+' will place ispell in TEX/LATEX mode (similar to the -t option) and '-' returns aspell to its default mode (but these commands are obsolete). A line '~', is ignored for ispell compatibility. A line prefixed with '#' will cause the personal dictionaries 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 for ispell compatibility.
+
  Enter TEX mode.
+«mode»
  Enter the mode specified by «mode».
-
  Enter the default mode.
!
  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.

cs «option»,«value»
  Change a configuration option.
cr «option»
  Prints the value of a configuration option.
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.

Anything returned is returned on its own line line. All lists returned have the following format

> «num of items»: «item1», «item2», «etc»

(Part of the preceding section was directly copied out of the Ispell manual)

###
3.2.1.1 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.

#
3.3 As an utility to manage word lists

## 3.3.1 Creating a Individual Word List

To create an individual 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 separated by white space. The ``./'' is important because without it aspell will create the word list in the normal word list directory. If you are trying to create a word list in a language other than english check the aspell data-dir (usually /usr/share/aspell, use ``aspell dump config'' to find out what it is on your system) to see if a language data file exists for your language. If not you will need to create one. See chapter 5 for more information on using Aspell with other languages.

This will create the file «base» in the current directory. To use the new word list copy the file to the normal word list directory (use ``aspell config'' to find out what it is) and use the option --master=«base».

The compiled dictionary file is machine dependent. It is dependent on endian order, and the page size for the machine because they are mmaped in. Please do not distribute the compiled dictionaries unless you are only distributing them for a particular platform such as you would a binary. That is why is normally installed in ``lib/aspell: instead of ``share/aspell''.

Aspell is now also able to use special ``multi'' dictionaries. See section 3.4 form more information.

A personal and replacement word list can be created in a similar fashion.

Because Aspell does not support any sort of affix compression like Ispell does Ispell word lists 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.

## 3.3.2 Format of the Replacement Word List

The replacement word has each replacement pair on its own line in the following format

  `«misspelled word»: «correction»`

## 3.3.3 Dumping the contents of the word list

The dump command will simply dump the contents of a word list to stdout in a format 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 personal

will simply dump the contents of the current personal word list to stdout.

This option will currently not work with ``multi'' word lists.

#
3.4 Notes on options word list pertaining to which word lists to use

As with precious versions of aspell you can specify the main dictionary to use via the -d or --master option. However as of Aspell .32 you can now also:

1. Specify more than word list to use with add-extra-dicts or remove-extra-dicts.
2. Optionally have all accents striped form the word lists using strip-accents option. This is not the same thing as the ignore-accents option. As enabling the ignore-accents would accept both cafe and café (notice the accent on the e), but only enabling strip-accents would only accent cafe, even if café is in the original dictionary. Specify strip-accents is just like using a word list with out the accents.
3. Specify special ``multi'' dictionaries.

A ``multi'' dictionary is a special file which basically a list of dictionary files to use. A multi dictionary must end is .multi and has roughly the same format of a configuration file where the two valid keys are add and strip-accents. The add key is used for adding individual word lists, or other ``multi'' files. The strip-accents key is used to control if accents are striped from the dictionaries. Unlike the global strip-accent option this option only effects word lists that came after the option. For example:

> strip-accents yes
> add english
> strip-accents no
> add must-accent

will strip accents from the english word list but not the must-accent word list. If the global strip-accents option is specified the local strip-accents options are ignored.

Aspell now provides the following multi dictionaries:

american-medium | american-large
british-medium | british-large
canadian-medium | canadian-large

The word lists themselves all contain accented words however the strip-accents option is enabled by default for all the individual word lists. If you wish to use the accented words you can set the global strip-accents option to false or create a new multi word list.

To give you an idea of what the two sizes are like here is a random sample of 50 lower case words from the medium size:

> asked behinds bowstring brute censure chlorines communistic conception consorting dichotomies disenfranchised eeriness encouraging erectnesses fluff friendless gourd gutted hods illiteracies insolvencies jalopies jettier kilted lackeys mangle mattocks minimally monotonic nagged neuritis pacifisms pedagogical porosities public reposed sandbagged schoolteachers spatters stickleback sweeping trivet twang twelfths ukuleles ultimate watersheds wavelengths whinniest woolliness

and 50 words found only in the large size:

> abidance airbase batrachian billfish breadroot brightener cabbageworm centurial clamberers contemporaneity costar cupolaed devourers difficile dugong dyad excursiveness fascinatingly flection freewheels gringos horsemint hygrophilous hyperplanes juncaceous loo madrepore meiosis meretriciously metathesis micro molluscoid phlegmy proconsulate professedly ravishers reabsorbs redecoration sidepiece skydiver sorrowfulness studbook tachistoscope toilworn topee unnavigable vitrescent waterlilies webworm workroom

Many other dictionary sizes and varieties can be created. See the scowl/ directory in the source distribution for information on the different varieties you can create and section 3.3 for how to create an individual dictionary.

#
3.5 Notes on the options to control run-together words

Aspell has support for either unconditionally accepting run-together words or only accepting certain words in compound formation.

Support for unconditionally accepting run-together words can either be turned on in the language data file or as a normal option via the run-together option. The run-together-limit options controls the maximum number of words that can be strung together, the default is normally 255. The run-together-min options controls the minimal length the individual components of the run together word can be, the default is normally 3. Both the run-together-limit and run-together-min option may be specified in both the language data file or as a normal. The run-together-mid option, which may only be specified in the language data file, may be used to specify up to three optional characters that may appear between individual words.

In order for aspell to conditionally only accept certain words in compounds those words must be flagged when the compiled word list is being created. The format for each entry is

> «word»:C[1][2][3]«middle char»

The 1, 2, and 3 control if the word is allowed to appear in the begging, middle, or end of the compound, respectfully. More than one position flag may be specified. If none of them are specified it as assumed that the word may appear anywhere. The C is optional if 1, 2, or 3 is specified. The «middle char» represents an optional character that may appear after the word in the formation of the compound if the word is not at the end of the compound. If the letter is lowercase than the character may appear after the word, if it is in uppercase then that letter must appear after the compound. Only one letter may be specified and it must also be in the list of middle letters specified via the run-together-mid option. The run-together-limit option may also be used to specify the maximum number of words to string together.

For example the word list:

> beg:1
> mid:2
> end:3
> any:C
> never
> must:CM
> maybe:Cm

Means that the word ``beg'' may only appear at the begging of a word, the word ``mid'' at the middle, the word ``end'' at the end, and the word ``any'' any place. The word ``never'' is never accepted in a compound unless the run-together option is set. The word ``must'' may appear anywhere however it must be followed by an ``m'', while the word maybe may be followed by an ``m''. Given the above word list the following compounds or legal:

> begmidend
> begany
> mustmend
> maybeend
> maybemend

are all legal, but the following are not:

> begmid
> mustend
> neverany

Individual words such as ``beg'' are always accepted.

When the run-together option is not set Aspell will only accept words that have been flagged in a run-together word. When the run-together option is set aspell will accept words which are as least as long as the value specified in the run-together-min option. If the words length is less than run-together-min then it will only accept the word if it has been flagged. When the run-together option is not set the run-together-min option is ignored all together.

Currently Aspell only supports run-together words when checking if a word is in the dictionary. When coming up with suggestions Aspell treats the word as a normal word and does not do anything special. This means that the suggestions will be virtually meaningless when the actual word is a run-together. I plan on more intelligently supporting run-together words when coming up with suggestions in a future version of Aspell.

#
3.6 Notes on various filters and filter mode

Aspell now has rudimentary filter support. You can either select from individual filters or chose a filter mode. To select a filter mode use the mode option. You may chose from none, url, email, sgml, and tex. The default mode is url. Individual filters can be added with the option add-filter and remove with the rem-filter option. The currently available filters are url, email, sgml, tex as well as a bunch of filters which translate the text from one format to another.

## 3.6.1 None Mode

This mode is exactly what it says. It turns off all filters.

## 3.6.2 Url Filter/Mode

The url filter/mode skips over URL's, host names, and email addresses. Because this filter is almost always useful and rarely does any harm it is enabled in all modes except none. To turn it off either select the none mode or use rem-filter option after the desired mode is selected.

## 3.6.3 Email Filter/Mode

The email filter/mode skips over quoted text. It currently does not support skipping over headers however a future version should. In the mean time I suggest you use Aspell with Newsbody which can be found at `http://home.worldonline.dk/~byrial/newsbody/`. The option email-skip controls the number of characters that can appear before the email quote char, the default is 10. The option add|rem-email-quote controls the characters that are considered quote characters, the default is ``>' and '|'.

##
3.6.4 SGML Filter/Mode

The sgml filter/mode will skip over sgml commands. It currently does not handle nested < > unless they are in quotes. It also does it handle the null end tag (net) minimization feature of sgml such as

> <emphasis/important/

The option add|rem-sgml-check controls which sgml tags should always be checked. The default is ``alt''.

The option add|rem-sgml-extension controls which file extensions are recognized as sgml/html files. The default is html, htm, php, and sgml. The extension are not case sensitive so extensions like .HTM will also be recognized.

The sgml mode also enables a filter which will recognize sgml charter commands such as &amp; and convert it into the proper iso8859-1 character. Currently only the iso8859-1 character set is used however in future versions it will convert it to the encoding that is specified in the language date file. You can specifically turn on this filter by enable the SGML&«charset»/«charset» filter.

## 3.6.5 TEX Filter/Mode

The tex (all lowercase) filter/mode skips over TEX commands and parameters and/or options to certain command. It also skips over TEX comments by default. The option [dont-]tex-check-comments controls whether or not aspel will skip over TEX comments. The option add|rem-tex-command controls which TEX commands should have certain parameters and/or options also skipped over. Commands that are not specified will have all there parameters and/or options checked. The format for each item is

> «command» «a list of p,P,o and Os»

The first item is simple the command name. The second item controls which parameters to skip over. A 'p' skips over a parameter while a 'P' won't. Similar an 'o' will skip over an optional parameter while a 'O' won't. The first letter on the list will apply to the first parameter, the second letter will apply to the second parameter etc. If there are more parameters than letters Aspell will simply check them as normal. For example the option

> add-tex-command rule pp

will skip over the first two parameters of the ``rule'' command while the option

> add-tex-command foo Pop

will check the first parameter of the ``foo'' command, skip over the next optional parameter, if it is present, and will skip over the second parameter -- even if the optional parameter is not present -- and will check any additional parameters.

A'*' at the end of the command is simply ignored. For example the option

> enlargethispage p

will ignore the first parameter in both enlargethispage and enlargethispage*.

To remove a command simple use the rem-tex-command option. For example

> rem-tex-command foo

will remove the command foo, if present, from the list of TEX commands.

#
3.7 Notes on the different suggestion modes

In order to understand what these suggestion modes do, a basic understanding of how aspell works is required. See section 6 for that. The suggestion modes are as follows.

fast
  This method looks for soundslikes within one edit distance apart. It is slower than Ispell by a factor of 1.5 to 2. It speed is only minor affected by the size of the word list, if at all. In this mode Aspell gets 88% of the words from my small test kernel of misspelled words. (Go to `http://aspell.sourceforge.net/test`for more info on the test kernel as well as comparisons of this version of Aspell with previous versions and other spell checkers.)
normal
  This method looks for soundslikes within two edit distance apart. Is is around 10 times slower than fast mode with the english word list but returns better suggestions. Its speed is directly proportional to the size of the word list. This mode gets 93% of the words.
bad-spellers
  This method also looks for soundslikes within two edit distances apart but is more tailored for the bad speller where as fast or normal are more tailed to strike a good balance between typos and true misspellings. This method also returns a huge number of words for the really bad spellers who can't seam to get the spelling anything close to what it should be. If the misspelled word looks anything like the correct spelling it is bound to be found somewhere on the list of 100 or more suggestions. This mode gets 98% of the words.

Next: 4. Library Interface Up: Aspell .32.5 alpha A Previous: 2. Getting Started Contents