dictfmt


DICTFMT(1)                                                          DICTFMT(1)

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  cre-
       ates  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 cor-
       respond 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  base-
       name.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 under-
score characters (_) and a blank line. All text until the next
headword is considered the definition. Any leading ‘@’ charac-
ters 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 DICTIO-
NARY. 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 sev-
eral 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 col-
umn 0 are treated as part of the headers. This option was writ-
ten to format the F.O.L.D.O.C.

-h FILE is formatted with the headwords starting in column 0, fol-
lowed by a comma, with the definition continuing on the same
line. All text before the first single character line is con-
sidered 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 DIC-
TIONARY. 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 possi-
ble.)

-p FILE is formatted with ‘%h’ in column 0, followed by a blank,
followed by the headword, optionally followed by a line contain-
ing ‘%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 head-
word 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 speci-
fied, 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> .