From Linux Man Pages
aspell - interactive spell checker
aspell [options] <command>
DESCRIPTION
aspell is a utility that can function as an ispell -a replacement, as an independent spell checker, as a test
utility to test out Aspell features, and as a utility for managing dictionaries.
COMMANDS
<command> is one of:
-?,help
display the help message
-c,check file
to spell-check a file
-a,pipe
ispell -a compatibility mode
list produce a list of misspelled words from standard input
[dump] config
dump the current configuration to stdout
config key
print the current value of an option
soundslike
return the soundslike equivalent for each word entered
filter pass standard input through the same set of filters that would be used to spell check a document
-v,version
print version number and exit
dump|create|merge master|personal|repl wordlist
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.
-d,--master=string
base name of the dictionary to use. If this option is specified then Aspell will either use this dictio-
nary or die.
--dict-dir=dir
location of the main word list
-l,--lang=string
language to use, it follows the same format of the LANG environmental variable on most systems. It con-
sists 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.
-p,--personal=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
CHECKER OPTIONS
These options control the behavior of Aspell when checking documents.
-W,--ignore=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
FILTER OPTIONS
These options modify the behavior of the various filters.
--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. utf-8 support is planned for the future. The two ``machine
unsigned encodings are intended to be used by other programs using the Aspell library and it is unlikely
the Aspell utility will ever support these encodings.
--add|rem-email-quote=list
email quote characters
--email-margin=integer
number of 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
RUN-TOGETHER WORD OPTIONS
These may be used to control the behavior of run-together words.
-C|-B,--run-together=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
MISC OPTIONS
Miscellaneous options that don't fall under any other category.
--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
UTILITY OPTIONS
-b|-x--backup=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
In addition Aspell will try to make sense out of ispell's command line options so that it can function 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 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. 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 example the fol-
lowing line will set the default language to Swiss German:
lang de_CH
There may 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 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.
The global configuration file for Aspell is /etc/aspell.conf and the per user configuration file is
~/.aspell.conf
RELATED
run-with-aspell(1), word-list-compress(1), aspell-import(1)
Aspell is fully documented in its Texinfo manual. See the `aspell' entry in info for more complete documenta-
tion.
CATEGORY