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Manual: aspell

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

NAME
aspell - interactive spell checker

SYNOPSIS
aspell [options]

DESCRIPTION
aspell is a utility program that connects to the Aspell library so that it can function as an ispell
-a replacement, as an independent spell checker, as a test utility to test out Aspell library fea‐
tures, and as a utility for managing dictionaries used by the library.

The Aspell library contains an interface allowing other programs direct access to its functions and
therefore reducing the complex task of spell checking to simple library calls. The default library
does not contain dictionary word lists. To add language dictionaries, please check your distro first
for modified dictionaries, otherwise look here for base language dictionaries .

The following information describes the commands and options used by the Aspell Utility.

This manual page is maintained separately from the official documentation so it may be out of date or
incomplete. The official documentation is maintained as a Texinfo manual. See the `aspell' entry in
info for more complete documentation.

COMMANDS
is one of:

usage, -?
Send a brief Aspell Utility usage message to standard output. This is a short summary listing
more common spell-check commands and options.

help Send a detailed Aspell Utility help message to standard output. This is a complete list show‐
ing all commands, options, filters and dictionaries.

version, -v
Print version number of Aspell Library and Utility to standard output.

check , -c
Spell-check a single file.

pipe, -a
Run Aspell in ispell -a compatibility mode.

list Produce a list of misspelled words from standard input.

[dump] config
Dump all current configuration options to standard output.

config
Send the current value of to standard output.

soundslike
Output the soundslike equivalent of each word entered.

munch Generate possible root words and affixes from an input list of words.

expand [1–4]
Expands the affix flags of each affix compressed word entered.

clean [strict]
Cleans an input word list so that every line is a valid word.

munch-list [simple] [single|multi] [keep]
Reduce the size of a word list via affix compression.

conv []
Converts one encoding another.

norm (| ) []
Perform Unicode normalization.

[dump] dicts|filters|modes
Lists available dictionaries, filters, or modes.

dump|create|merge master|personal|repl
dump, create, or merge a master, personal, or replacement word list.

DICTIONARY OPTIONS
The following options may be used to control which dictionaries to use and how they behave.

--master=, -d
Base name of the dictionary to use. If this option is specified then Aspell will either use
this dictionary or die.

--dict-dir=
Location of the main dictionary word list.

--lang=, -l
Language to use. It follows the same format of the LANG environmental variable on most sys‐
tems. It consists of the two letter ISO 639 language code and an optional two letter ISO 3166
country code after a dash or underscore. The default value is based on the value of the
LC_MESSAGES locale.

--size=
The preferred size of the dictionary word list. This consists of a two char digit code de‐
scribing the size of the list, with typical values of: 10=tiny, 20=really small, 30=small,
40=med-small, 50=med, 60=med-large, 70=large, 80=huge, 90=insane.

--variety=
Any extra information to distinguish this variety of dictionary from other dictionaries which
may have the same lang and size.

--jargon=
Please use the variety option since it replaces jargon as a better choice. jargon will be re‐
moved in the future.

--word-list-path=
Search path for word list information files.

--personal=, -p
Personal word list file name.

--repl=
Replacements list file name.

--extra-dicts=
Extra dictionaries to use.

--ignore-accents
This option is not yet implemented.

CHECKER OPTIONS
These options control the behavior of Aspell when checking documents.

--ignore=, -W
Ignore words <= characters in length.

--ignore-case, --dont-ignore-case
Ignore case when checking words.

--ignore-repl, --dont-ignore-repl
Ignore commands to store replacement pairs.

--save-repl, --dont-save-repl
Save the replacement word list on save all.

--sug-mode=
Suggestion = ultra|fast|normal|bad-spellers

FILTER OPTIONS
These options modify the behavior of the various filters.

--add-filter=, --rem-filter=
Add or remove a filter.

--add-filter-path=, --rem-filter-path=
Add or remove paths searched for filters.

--mode=, -e, -H, -t, -n
Sets the filter mode. Mode is one of none, url, email, html, tex or nroff. The alternative
shortcut options are '-e' for email, '-H' for Html/Sgml, '-t' for Tex or '-n' for Nroff.

--encoding=
encoding the document is expected to be in. The default depends on the current locale.

--add-email-quote=, --rem-email-quote=
Add or remove a list of email quote characters.

--email-margin=
Number of chars that can appear before the quote char.

--add-html-check=, --rem-html-check=
Add or remove a list of HTML attributes to always check. For example, look inside alt= at‐
tributes.

--add-html-skip=, --rem-html-skip=
Add or remove a list of HTML tags to always skip while spell checking.

--add-sgml-check=, --rem-sgml-check=
Add or remove a list of SGML attributes to always check for spelling.

--add-sgml-skip=, --rem-sgml-skip=
Add or remove a list of SGML tags to always skip while spell checking.

--sgml-extension=
SGML file extensions.

--tex-check-comments, --dont-tex-check-comments
Check TeX comments.

--add-tex-command=, --rem-tex-command=
Add or remove a list of TeX commands.

--add-texinfo-ignore=, --rem-texinfo-ignore=
Add or remove a list of Texinfo commands.

--add-texinfo-ignore-env=, --rem-texinfo-ignore-env=
Add or remove a list of Texinfo environments to ignore.

--context-visible-first, --dont-context-visible-first
Switch the context which should be visible to Aspell.

--add-context-delimiters=, --rem-context-delimiters=
Add or remove pairs of delimiters.

RUN-TOGETHER WORD OPTIONS
These may be used to control the behavior of run-together words.

--run-together, --dont-run-together, -C, -B
Consider run-together words valid.

--run-together-limit=
Maximum number of words that can be strung together.

--run-together-min=
Minimal length of interior words.

MISC OPTIONS
Miscellaneous options that don't fall under any other category.

--conf=
Main configuration file. This file overrides Aspell's global defaults.

--conf-dir=
Location of main configuration file.

--data-dir=
Location of language data files.

--keyboard=
Use this keyboard layout for suggesting possible words. These spelling errors happen if a
user accidentally presses a key next to the intended correct key.

--local-data-dir=
Alternative location of language data files. This directory is searched before data-dir.

--home-dir=
Directory Location for personal wordlist files.

--per-conf=
Personal configuration file. This file overrides options found in the global config file.

ASPELL UTILITY OPTIONS
These options are part of the aspell Utility and work independently of the library.

--backup, --dont-backup, -b, -x
The aspell utility creates a backup file by making a copy and appending .bak to file name.
This only applies when the command is check and the backup file is only created if any
spelling modifications take place.

--byte-offsets, --dont-byte-offsets
Use byte offsets instead of character offsets.

--guess, --dont-guess, -m, -P
Create missing root/affix combinations not in the dictionary in pipe mode.

--keymapping=aspell, --keymapping=ispell
The keymapping to use, either aspell for the default mapping or ispell to use the same mapping
that the Ispell utility uses.

--reverse, --dont-reverse
Reverse the order of the suggestions list in pipe mode.

--suggest, --dont-suggest
Suggest possible replacements in pipe mode. If false, Aspell will simply report the mis‐
spelling and make no attempt at suggestions or possible corrections.

--time, --dont-time
Time the load time and suggest a time in pipe mode.

In addition Aspell will try to make sense out of Ispell's command line options so that it can func‐
tion as a drop in replacement for Ispell. If Aspell is run without any command line options it will
display a brief help screen and quit.

CONFIGURATION
Aspell can accept options via global or personal configuration files so that you do not need to spec‐
ify them each time at the command line. The default global configuration file is /etc/aspell.conf or
another file specified by option --conf and is checked first. The default per user configuration
file ~/.aspell.conf located in the $HOME directory (or another file specified by option --per-conf)
is checked next and overrides options set in the global config file. Options specified at either the
command line or via an environmental variable override those specified by either configuration file.

Each line of the configuration file has the format:

option [value]

where option is any one of the standard library options above without the leading dashes. For exam‐
ple the following line will set the default language to Swiss German:

lang de_CH

There may be any number of spaces between the option and the value, however it can only be spaces,
i.e. there is no '=' between the option name and the value. Comments may also be included by preced‐
ing them with a '#' as anything from a '#' to a newline is ignored. Blank lines are also allowed.
The /etc/aspell.conf file is a good example of how to set these options and the Aspell Manual has
more detailed info.

SEE ALSO
aspell-import(1), prezip-bin(1), run-with-aspell(1), word-list-compress(1)

Aspell is fully documented in its Texinfo manual. See the `aspell' entry in info for more complete
documentation.

SUPPORT
Support for Aspell can be found on the Aspell mailing lists. Instructions for joining the various
mailing lists (and an archive of them) can be found off the Aspell home page at .
Bug reports should be submitted via GitHub Issues rather than being posted to the mailing lists.

GNU 2006-12-10 ASPELL(1)

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Manual: aspell

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