DICTFMT

NAME

dictfmt - formats a DICT protocol dictionary database

SYNOPSIS

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

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, -e, -f, -h, -j, or -p. Exactly one of these options must be given.

Headers are prepended to the .dict file giving the URL of the site from which the original database was obtained, the name of the dictionary, and the date of conversion (formatting). If the -u and/or -s options are omitted, the value "unknown" will be included for these values, which is undesirable for a publicly distributed database.

All text in the input file prior to the first headword is appended to the headers in the .dict file. 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.

-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 headers. 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 considered part of the headers, 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.

: This option was written to format HITCHCOCK'S BIBLE NAMES DICTIONARY. The headword is indexed; the text of the file is not changed.

-j

FILE is formatted with headwords starting in col 0, enclosed in colons, followed by the definition.

: This option was written to format the JARGON FILE. 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.
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 beginnning '%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. This option was written to format Jay Kominek's elements database.

OPTIONS

-u url: Specifies the URL of the site from which the raw database was obtained.
-s name: Specifies the name and, optionally, the version and date, of the database. (If this contains spaces, it must be quoted.)
-L: display license and copyright information
-V: display version information
-D: output debuugging information
--help: display a help message
--locale locale: specifies the locale used for sorting. if no locale is specified, the "C" locale is used.
--allchars: use all characters (not only alphanumeric and space) in sorting the index
--headword-separator sep: sets the head word 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.
--without-headword: head words will not be included in .dict file

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> .