next up previous contents Next: 5. Working With Dictionaries Up: GNU Aspell 0.50.3 Previous: 3. Basic Usage Contents Subsections * 4.1 Specifying Options + 4.1.1 At the Command Line o 4.1.1.1 Boolean o 4.1.1.2 Value o 4.1.1.3 List + 4.1.2 Via a Configuration File o 4.1.2.1 Boolean o 4.1.2.2 Value o 4.1.2.3 List + 4.1.3 Via an Environmental Variable * 4.2 The Options + 4.2.1 Dictionary Options + 4.2.2 Checker Options + 4.2.3 Filter Options + 4.2.4 Run-together Word Options + 4.2.5 Misc Options + 4.2.6 Aspell Utility Options * 4.3 Dumping Configuration Values * 4.4 Notes on various Options + 4.4.1 Notes on Various Filters and Filter Modes o 4.4.1.1 None Mode o 4.4.1.2 Url Filter/Mode o 4.4.1.3 Email Filter/Mode o 4.4.1.4 SGML Filter/Mode o 4.4.1.5 TEX Filter/Mode + 4.4.2 Notes on the Prefix Option + 4.4.3 Notes on Typo-Analysis and the Keyboard Definition File + 4.4.4 Notes on the Different Suggestion Modes -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Customizing Aspell The behavior of Aspell can be changed by any number of options which can be specified at either the command line, the environmental variable ASPELL_CONF, a personal configuration file, or a global configuration file. Options specified on the command line override options specified by the environmental variable. Options specified by the environmental variable override options specified by either of the configurations files. Finally options specified by the personal configuration file override options specified in the global configuration file. Options specified in the environmental variable ASPELL_CONF, a personal configuration file, or a global configuration file will take effect no matter how Aspell is used which includes being used by other applications. Aspell has three basic type of options: boolean, value, and list. Boolean options are either enabled or disabled, value options take a specific value, and list options can either have entries added or removed from the list. 4.1 Specifying Options 4.1.1 At the Command Line All options specified at the command line have the following basic format: --«option»[=«value»] where the '=' can be replaced by whitespace. However some options also have single letter abbreviations of the form: -«letter»[«optional whitespace»«value»] 4.1.1.1 Boolean To enable a boolean option simply special the option with out any corresponding value. For example to ignore accents when checking words use "--ignore-accents". To disable a boolean option prefix the option name with a "dont-". For example to not ignore accents when checking words use "--dont-ignore-accents". If a boolean option has a single letter abbreviation simply give the letter corresponding to either enabling or disabling the option with out any corresponding value. For example to consider run-together words legal use "-C" or to consider them illegal use "-B" 4.1.1.2 Value To specify a value option simply specify the option with its corresponding value. For example to set the filter mode to Tex use "--mode=tex". If a value option has a single letter shortcut simply specify the single letter short cut with its corresponding value. For example to use a large american dictionary use "-d american-lrg". 4.1.1.3 List To add a value to the list prefix the option name with a "add-" and then specify the value to add. For example to add the URL filter use "--add-filter url". To remove a value from a list option prefix the option name with a "rem-" and then specify the value to remove. For example to remove the URL filter use "--rem-filter url". To remove all items from a list prefix the option name with a "rem-all" without specify any value. For example to remove all filters use "--rem-all-filter". 4.1.2 Via a Configuration File Aspell can also accept options via a personal or global configuration file. The exact files to used are specified by the options per-conf and conf respectfully but the personal configuration file is normally ".aspell.conf" located in the HOME directory and the global one is normally "aspell.conf" which is located in the etc directory which is normally "/usr/etc" or "/usr/local/etc". To find out the particular values for your particular system use "aspell dump config". Each line of the configuration file has the format: «option» [«value»] There may any number of spaces between the option and the value however it can only be spaces, ie there is no '=' between the option name and the value. Comments may also be included by preceding them with a '#' as anything from a "#" to a newline is ignored. Blank lines are also allowed. Values set in the personal configuration file override those in the global file. Options specified at either the command line or via an environmental variable override those specified by either configuration file. 4.1.2.1 Boolean To specify a boolean option simply include the option followed by a "true" to enable it or a "false" to disable it. For example to allow run-together words use "run-together true". 4.1.2.2 Value To specify a value option simply include the option followed by the corresponding option. For example to set the default language to german use "lang german". 4.1.2.3 List To add a value to the list prefix the option name with a "add-" and then specify the value to add. For example to add the URL filter use "add-filter url". To remove a value from a list option prefix the option name with a "rem-" and then specify the value to remove. For example to remove the URL filter use "rem-filter url". To remove all items from a list prefix the option name with a "rem-all" without specify any value. For example to remove all filters use "rem-all-filter". 4.1.3 Via an Environmental Variable 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. 4.2 The Options The following is a list of available options broken down by category. Each entry has the following format: «option»[,«single letter abbreviations»] («type») «description» Where single letter options are specified as they would appear at the command line, ie with the preceding dash. Boolean single letter options are specified in the following format: -«abbreviation to enable»|-«abbreviation to disable» «Option» is one of the following: boolean, string, file, dir, integer, or list. String, file, dir, and integer types are all value options which can only take a specific type of value. 4.2.1 Dictionary Options The following options may be used to control which dictionaries to use and how they behave (see section 5 for more information): master,-d (string) base name of the dictionary to use. If this option is specifed than Aspell with either use this dictionary or die. dict-dir (dir) location of the main word list lang (string) language to use, it follows the same format of the LANG environmental variable on most systems. 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 (string) the preferred size of the word list jargon (string) an extra information to distinguish two different words lists that have the same lang and size. word-list-path (list) search path for word list information files module-search-order (list) list of available modules, modules that come first on this list have a higher priority. Currently there is only one speller module. personal,-p (file) personal word list file name repl (file) replacements list file name extra-dicts (list) extra dictionaries to use. strip-accents (boolean) strip accents from all words in the dictionary 4.2.2 Checker Options These options control the beahvior of Aspell when checking documents. ignore,-W (integer) ignore words <= n chars ignore-case (boolean) ignore case when checking words ignore-accents (boolean) ignore accents when checking words ignore-repl (boolean) ignore commands to store replacement pairs save-repl (boolean) save the replacement word list on save allkeyboard (file) the base name of the keyboard definition file to use (see section 4.4.3) sug-mode (mode) suggestion mode = ultra | fast | normal | bad-spellers (see section 4.4.4) 4.2.3 Filter Options These options modify the behavior of the various filters (see section 4.4.1 for more information): filter (list) add or removes a filter mode (string) sets the filter mode. Mode is one if none, url, email, sgml, or tex. (The short cut options '-e' may be used for email, '-H' for Html/Sgml, or '-t' for Tex) encoding (string) The encoding the input text is in. Valid values are "utf-8", "iso8859-*", "koi8-r", "viscii", "cp1252", "machine unsigned 16", "machine unsigned 32". However, the aspell utility will currently only function correctly with 8-bit encodings. I hope to provide utf-8 support in the future. The two "machine unsigned" encodings are entended to be used by other programs using the Aspell librarary and it is unlikly the Aspell utility will ever support these encodings. add|rem-email-quote (list) email quote characters email-margin (integer) num chars that can appear before the quote char sgml-check (list) sgml attributes to always check. sgml-extension (list) sgml file extensions. tex-command (list) TEX commands tex-check-comments (boolean) check TEX comments 4.2.4 Run-together Word Options These may be used to control the behavior of run-together words (see section 7.4 for more information): run-together,-C|-B (boolean) consider run-together words legal run-together-limit (integer) maximum numbers that can be strung together run-together-min (integer) minimal length of interior words 4.2.5 Misc Options Misc. other options that don't fall under any other catagory 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). home-dir (dir) location for personal files per-conf (file) personal configuration file prefix (dir) prefix directory set-prefix (boolean) set the prefix based on executable location (only works on Win32 and when compiled with --enable-win32-relocatable) 4.2.6 Aspell Utility Options backup,-b|-x (boolean) create a backup file by appending ".bak" to the file name. (Only applies when the command is check) time (boolean) time load time and suggest time in pipe mode. reverse (boolean) reverse the order of the suggestions list. keymapping (string) the keymapping to use. Either aspell for the default mapping or ispell to use the same mapping that the ispell utility uses. 4.3 Dumping Configuration Values To find out the current value of all the options use the command "aspell dump config". This will dump the current configuration to standard output. The format of the contents dumped is such that it can be used as either the global or personal configuration file. To find out the current value of a particular option use "aspell config « option»". This will print out the value of «option» to stdout and nothing else. 4.4 Notes on various Options 4.4.1 Notes on Various Filters and Filter Modes 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. 4.4.1.1 None Mode This mode is exactly what it says. It turns off all filters. 4.4.1.2 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. 4.4.1.3 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 '|'. 4.4.1.4 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