Ubuntu Manpage: dictfmt - formats a DICT protocol dictionary database

Provided by: dictfmt_1.13.1+dfsg-1build1_amd64

NAME

       dictfmt - formats a DICT protocol dictionary database

SYNOPSIS

       dictfmt  -c5|-t|-e|-f|-h|-j|-p [options]  basename
       dictfmt  -i|-I [options]

DESCRIPTION

dictfmt takes a file, FILE, on stdin, and creates a dictionary database named basename.dict, that
conforms to the DICT protocol. It also creates an index file named basename.index. By default, the
index is sorted according to the C locale, and only alphanumeric characters and spaces are used in
sorting, however this may be changed with the --locale and --allchars options. ( basename is commonly
chosen to correspond to the basename of FILE , but this is not mandatory.)

Unless the database is extremely small, it is highly recommended that basename.dict be compressed with
/usr/bin/dictzip to create basename.dict.dz. (dictzip is included in the dictd source package.)

FILE may be in any of the several formats described by the format options -c5, -t, -e, -f, -h, -j, -p, -i
or -I. Exactly one of these options must be given.

dictfmt prepends several headers are to the .dict file. The 00-database-url header gives the value of
the -u option as the URL of the site from which the original database was obtained. The 00-database-
short header gives the value of the -s option as the short name of the dictionary. (This "short name" is
the identifying name given by the "dict- D" option.) If the -u and/or -s options are omitted, these
values will be shown as "unknown", which is undesirable for a publicly distributed database.

The date of conversion (formatting) is given in the 00-database-info header. All text in the input file
prior to the first headword (as defined by the appropriate formatting option) is appended to this header.
All text in the input file following a headword, up to the next headword, is copied unchanged to the
.dict file.

FORMATTING OPTIONS

-c5 FILE is formatted with headwords preceded by 5 or more underscore characters (_) and a blank line.
All text until the next headword is considered the definition. Any leading `@' characters are
stripped out, but the file is otherwise unchanged. This option was written to format the CIA WORLD
FACTBOOK 1995.

-t -c5, --without-info and --without-headword options are implied. Use this option, if an input
database comes from dictunformat utility.

-e FILE is in html format, with the headword tagged as bold. (<B>headword - </B>)
This option was written to format EASTON'S 1897 BIBLE DICTIONARY. A typical entry from Easton is:

<A NAME="T0000005">
<B>Abagtha - </B>
one of the seven eunuchs in Ahasuerus's court (Esther 1:10; 2:21).

This is converted to:
Abagtha
one of the seven eunuchs in Ahasuerus's court (Esther 1:10; 2:21).

The heading "<A NAME="T0000005"> is omitted, and the headword `Abagtha' is indexed.

NOTE: This option should be used with caution. It removes several html tags (enough to format
Easton properly), but not all. The Makefile that was originally written to format dict-easton
uses sed scripts to modify certain cross reference tags. It may be necessary to pipe the input
file through a sed script, or hack the source of dictfmt in order to properly format other html
databases.

-f FILE is formatted with the headwords starting in column 0, with the definition indented at least
one space (or tab character) on subsequent lines. The third line starting in column 0 is taken as
the first headword , and the first two lines starting in column 0 are treated as part of the
00-database-info header. This option was written to format the F.O.L.D.O.C.

-h FILE is formatted with the headwords starting in column 0, followed by a comma, with the
definition continuing on the same line. All text before the first single character line is
included in 00-database-info header, and lines with only one character are omitted from the .dict
file. The first headword is on the line following the first single character line. The headword
is indexed; the text of the file is not changed. This option was written to format HITCHCOCK'S
BIBLE NAMES DICTIONARY.

-j FILE is formatted with headwords starting in col 0, enclosed in colons, followed by the
definition. The colons surrounding the headword are removed, and the headword is indexed. Lines
beginning with '*', '=', or '-' are also removed. All text before the first headword is included
in the headers. This option was written to format the JARGON FILE.
NOTE: Some recent versions of the JARGON FILE had three blanks inserted before the first colon at
each headword. These must be removed before processing with dictfmt. (sed scripts have been used
for this purpose. ed, awk, or perl scripts are also possible.)

-p FILE is formatted with '%h' in column 0, followed by a blank, followed by the headword, optionally
followed by a line containing `%d' in column 0. The definition starts on the following line. The
first line beginning '%h' and any lines beginning '%d' are stripped from the .dict file, and '%h '
is stripped from in front of the headword. All text before the first headword is included in the
headers. The second line beginning '%h' is taken as the first headword.
This option was written to format Jay Kominek's elements database.

-i -I These two options are different from all other formatting options. They are intended to resort
(according to dictd requirement) an .index file given on stdin. That is .dict file is not
generated at all. Only resorting is made. Three- or four-column .index like input is expected.
-i expects decimal offset and length, while -I expects them in base64 format.

OPTIONS

-u url Specifies the URL of the site from which the raw database was obtained. If this option is
specified, 00-database-url headword and appropriate definition will be ignored.

-s name
Specifies the name and, optionally, the version and date, of the database. (If this contains
spaces, it must be quoted.) If this option is specified, 00-database-short headword and
appropriate definition will be ignored.

-L display license and copyright information

-V display version information

-D output debugging information

--help display a help message

--locale locale
Specifies the locale used for sorting. If no locale is specified, the "C" locale is used. For
using UTF-8 mode, --utf8 is needed.

--8bit generates database in 8-bit mode, see --locale option also.
Note: This option is deprecated. Use it for creating 8-bit (non-UTF8) dictionaries only. In
order to create UTF-8 dictionary, use --utf8 option instead.

--utf8 If specified, UTF-8 database is created.

--allchars
Specifies that all characters should be used for the search, by default only alphabetic, numeric
characters and spaces are put to .index file and therefore are used in search. Creates the special
entry 00-database-allchars.

--case-sensitive
makes the search case sensitive. Creates the special entry 00-database-case-sensitive.

--headword-separator sep
sets the headword separator, which allows several words to have the same definition. For example,
if '--headword-separator %%%' is given, and the input file contains 'autumn%%%fall', both 'autumn'
and 'fall' will be indexed as headwords, with the same definition.

--index-data-separator sep
sets the index/data separator, which allows one to set the first and fourth columns of .index file
independently. That is the first column can be treated as an index column (where the MATCH command
searches) and the fourth column as a result column (where the MATCH gets things to be returned),
and they (1-st and 4-th columns) are completely independent of each other. The default value for
this separator is ASCII symbol " \034".

--break-headwords
multiple headwords will be written on separate lines in the .dict file. For use with
'--headword-separator.

--index-keep-orig
When --utf-8 is specified headwords are lowercased and non-alphanumeric characters are removed
from it before saving to .index file in order to simplify the search. When --index-keep-orig
option is used fourth column is created (if necessary) in .index file, and contains an original
headword which is returned by MATCH command. This option may be useful to prevent converting "
AT&T" to " ATT" or to keep proper nouns with uppercased first letter.

--without-headword
headwords will not be included in .dict file

--without-header
header will not be copied to DB info entry

--without-url
URL will not be copied to DB info entry

--without-time
time of creation will not be copied to DB info entry

--without-ver
By default dictfmt creates a special entry 00-database-dictfmt-X.Y.Z that contains (in .dict file)
dictfmt version in format dictfmt-X.Y.Z. This option suppresses this.

--without-info
DB info entry will not be created. This may be useful if 00-database-info headword is expected
from stdin (dictunformat outputs it).

--columns columns
By default dictfmt wraps strings read from stdin to 72 columns. This option changes this default.
If it is set to zero or negative value, wrapping is off.

--default-strategy strategy
Sets the default search strategy for the database. It will be used instead of strategy '.'.
Special entry 00-database-default-strategy is created for this purpose. This option may be
useful, for example, for dictionaries containing mainly phrases but the single words. In any
case, use this option if you are absolutely sure what you are doing.

--mime-header mime_header
When client sends OPTION MIME command to the dictd , definitions found in this database are
prepended by the specified MIME header. Creates the special entry 00-database-mime-header.

CREDITS

       dictfmt was written by Rik Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu)  as  part  of  the  dict-misc  package.   dictfmt  is
       distributed  under  the  terms  of the GNU General Public License.  If you need to distribute under other
       terms, write to the author.

AUTHOR

       This manual page was written by Robert D. Hilliard <hilliard@debian.org> .