Linux aspell command

Updated: 08/16/2021 by Computer Hope
aspell command

aspell is an interactive spell checker. It scans your files (or anything from standard input), check for misspellings, and allow you to correct the words interactively.

Syntax

aspell [options] command

Commands

command can be one of the following:

usage, -? Displays a summary of common spellcheck commands and options.
help Send a detailed aspell utility help message to standard output. This is a complete list showing all commands, options, filters and dictionaries.
version, -v Print version number of aspell library and utility to standard output.
check file, -c file Spellcheck 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 key Send the current value of key 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 from to
[norm-form]
Converts from one encoding to another.
norm (norm-map |
from norm-map to) [norm-form]
Perform Unicode normalization.
[dump]
dicts | filters | modes
Lists available dictionaries, filters, or modes.
dump | create |
merge master |
personal | repl wordlist
Dump, create, or merge a master, personal, or replacement word list.

Options

The following options can control which dictionaries to use and how they behave:

--master=name,
-d name
Base name of the dictionary to use. If this option is specified then aspell uses this dictionary or dies.
--dict-dir=directory Location of the main dictionary word list.
--lang=string,
-l 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 dictionary word list. This consists of a two-character digit code describing the size of the list, with typical values of: 10=tiny, 20=really small, 30=small, 40=somewhat small, 50=med, 60=kinda large, 70=large, 80=huge, 90=enormous.
--variety=string Any extra information to distinguish this variety of dictionary from other dictionaries which may have the same lang and size.
--jargon=string Please use the variety option since it replaces jargon as a better choice. The jargon will be removed in the future.
--word-list-path=list of directories Search path for word list information files.
--personal=file,
-p file
File name for the personal word list to use.
--repl=file Replacements list file name.
--extra-dicts=list Extra dictionaries to use.
--ignore-accents (This option is not yet implemented.)

The following options control the behavior of aspell when checking documents:

--ignore=integer,
-W integer
Ignore words greater than or equal to integer 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=mode Suggestion mode = ultra | fast | normal | bad-spellers

These options modify the behavior of the various filters:

--add-filter=list,
--rem-filter=list
Add or remove a filter.
--add-filter-path=paths,
--rem-filter-path=paths
Add or remove paths searched for filters.
--mode=string, -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=string The expected encoding of the document. The default depends on the current locale.
--add-email-quote=list,
--rem-email-quote=list
Add or remove a list of email quote characters.
--email-margin=integer Number of chars that can appear before the quote char.
--add-html-check=list,
--rem-html-check=list
Add or remove a list of HTML attributes to always check. For example, look inside "alt=" tags.
--add-html-skip=list,
--rem-html-skip=list
Add or remove a list of HTML attributes to always skip while spell checking.
--add-sgml-check=list,
--rem-sgml-check=list
Add or remove a list of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) attributes to always check for spelling.
--add-sgml-skip=list,
--rem-sgml-skip=list
Add or remove a list of SGML attributes to always skip while spell checking.
--sgml-extension=list SGML file extensions.
--tex-check-comments,
--dont-tex-check-comments
Check TeX comments (or don't).
--add-tex-command=list,
--rem-tex-command=list
Add or remove a list of TeX commands.

The following options can control the behavior of run-together words:

--run-together,
--dont-run-together,
-C, -B
Consider run-together words valid.
--run-together-limit=integer Maximum number of words that can be strung together.
--run-together-min=integer Minimal length of interior words.

The following are miscellaneous options that don't fall under any other category:

--conf=filename Main configuration file. This file overrides aspell's global defaults.
--conf-dir=directory Location of main configuration file.
--data-dir=directory Location of language data files.
--keyboard=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=directory Alternative location of language data files. This directory is searched before data-dir.
--home-dir=directory Directory location for personal wordlist files.
--per-conf=filename Personal configuration file. This file overrides options found in the global config file.

The following 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 file 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 report the misspelling and make no attempt at suggestions or possible corrections.
--time, --dont-time Time the load time and suggest a time in pipe mode.

If aspell is run without any command line options, it displays a brief help screen and quits.

Configuration

aspell can accept options via global or personal configuration files so that you do not need to specify 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 example, the following line sets 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 preceding 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.

Examples

aspell check example.txt

Running this command checks the spelling of every word in the file example.txt. If no spelling errors are found, the command returns nothing. If it detects any spelling errors, it highlights them in context and display your options.

For example, if example.txt contained the following text:

The quirck brown fox jumped over the extraordinarily lazy dog.

...then the menu that aspell gives you would resemble the following:

The quirck brown fox jumped over the extraordinarily lazy dog.
1) quick            6) quirks
2) quirk            7) quicker
3) quirky           8) quickie
4) quack            9) Kirk
5) quark            0) kick
i) Ignore           I) Ignore all
r) Replace          R) Replace all
a) Add              l) Add Lower
b) Abort            x) Exit

spell — A spell checker.