DICTFMT(1)																DICTFMT(1)

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  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, -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 dic-
       tionary.  (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 util-
	      ity.

       -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 nec-
	      essary 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 omit-
	      ted 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  defini-
	      tion.

       --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 " 34".

       --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-data-
	      base-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> .

SEE ALSO

       dict(1), dictd(8), dictzip(1), dictunformat(1), http://www.dict.org, RFC 2229

								 25 December 2000							DICTFMT(1)