ASPELL(1) Aspell Abbreviated User's Manual ASPELL(1)
NAME
aspell - interactive spell checker
SYNOPSIS
aspell [options] <command>
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 features, 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 <http://aspell.net>.
The following information describes the commands and options used by the
Aspell Utility.
This manual page is maintained separately from the official documenta-
tion so it may be out of date or incomplete.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
<command> 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 showing all commands, options, filters
and dictionaries.
version, -v
Print version number of Aspell Library and Utility to standard
output.
check <file>, -c <file>
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 <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.
DICTIONARY OPTIONS
The following options may be used to 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 will either use this dictionary or die.
--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 environ-
mental 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 char digit code describing the size of the list, with typi-
cal values of: 10=tiny, 20=really small, 30=small, 40=med-small,
50=med, 60=med-large, 70=large, 80=huge, 90=insane.
--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 bet-
ter choice. jargon will be removed in the future.
--word-list-path=<list of directories>
Search path for word list information files.
--personal=<file>, -p <file>
Personal word list file name.
--repl=<file>
Replacements list file name.
--extra-dicts=<list>
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=<integer>, -W <integer>
Ignore words <= <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
FILTER OPTIONS
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>
encoding the document is expected to be in. 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 ex-
ample, look inside alt= attributes.
--add-html-skip=<list>, --rem-html-skip=<list>
Add or remove a list of HTML tags to always skip while spell
checking.
--add-sgml-check=<list>, --rem-sgml-check=<list>
Add or remove a list of SGML attributes to always check for
spelling.
--add-sgml-skip=<list>, --rem-sgml-skip=<list>
Add or remove a list of SGML tags to always skip while spell
checking.
--sgml-extension=<list>
SGML file extensions.
--tex-check-comments, --dont-tex-check-comments
Check TeX comments.
--add-tex-command=<list>, --rem-tex-command=<list>
Add or remove a list of TeX commands.
--add-texinfo-ignore=<list>, --rem-texinfo-ignore=<list>
Add or remove a list of Texinfo commands.
--add-texinfo-ignore-env=<list>, --rem-texinfo-ignore-env=<list>
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=<list>, --rem-context-delimiters=<list>
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=<integer>
Maximum number of words 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 name>
Main configuration file. This file overrides Aspell's global de-
faults.
--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=<file name>
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 ap-
pending .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 simply report the misspelling and make no attempt at sugges-
tions 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 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 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 an-
other 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 will set the default
language to Swiss German:
lang de_CH
There may be any number of spaces between the option and the value, how-
ever 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 and the Aspell Manual has more detailed info.
SEE ALSO
aspell-import(1), prezip-bin(1), run-with-aspell(1), word-list-com-
press(1)
Aspell is fully documented in its Texinfo manual. See the `aspell' en-
try in info for more complete documentation.
SUPPORT
Support for Aspell can be found on the Aspell mailing lists. Instruc-
tions for joining the various mailing lists (and an archive of them) can
be found off the Aspell home page at <http://aspell.net>. Bug reports
should be submitted via GitHub Issues rather than being posted to the
mailing lists.
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Brian Nelson <pyro@debian.org> based on
the Aspell User's Manual, Copyright © 2002 Kevin Atkinson. Updated Nov
2006 by Jose Da Silva <digital@joescat.com>, and Dec 2006 by Kevin
Atkinson <kevina@gnu.org>.
GNU 2006-12-10 ASPELL(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 06:17:43 CET 2025.