NAME

word-list-compress – word list compressor/decompressor for GNU Aspell  

SYNOPSIS

word-list-compress c[ompress] | d[ecompress]  

DESCRIPTION

word-list-compress compresses or decompresses sorted word lists for use with the GNU Aspell spell checker.  

COMMANDS

-c, c, compress
compress the plain text word list read from standard input.
-d, d, decompress
decompress the compressed word list read from standard input.
 

EXAMPLES

Here are a few examples of how you can use word-list-compress
word-list-compress d <wordlist.cwl >wordlist.txt
Decompress file wordlist.cwl to text file wordlist.txt
word-list-compress c <wordlist.wl >wordlist.cwl 2>errors.txt
Compress wordlist.wl to wordlist.cwl and send any error messages to a text file named errors.txt
LC_COLLATE=C sort -u <wordlist.txt | word-list-compress c >wordlist.cwl
Sort a word list, then pipe it to word-list-compress to create a compressed binary wordlist.cwl file.
word-list-compress d <words.cwl | aspell create master ./words.rws
Decompress a wordlist, then pipe it to aspell(1) to create a spelling list. Please check the aspell(1) info manual for proper usage and options.
 

TIPS

Word-list-compress is best used with sorted word list type files. It is not a general purpose compression program since the resulting files may actually increase in size.

Word-list-compress accepts up to 255 text characters in the range of {0x21…0xFF}. If your word list requires a larger character set for certain languages or longer length for multi-word, scientific, medical, technical or other use, then it is recommended that you compress your word list using prezip-bin(1)  

DIAGNOSTICS

Word-list-compress normally exits with a return code of 0. If it encounters an error, a message is sent to standard error output (stderr), and word-list-compress exits with a non-zero return value. Error messages are listed below:
(display help/usage message)
Unknown command given on the command line so word-list-compress displays a usage message to standard error output.
Corrupt Input
This is only for the decompression command d. The input file is of an unknown format or the input file/stream is corrupted. You may have some valid output, but word-list-compress could not complete the process. If the input file is a compressed wordlist but you have no output file, then it may be a newer prezip-bin(1) version of compressed file, if so, try decompressing the file with prezip-bin(1) instead.
Output Data Error
The output is full, write protected, or has an error and can no longer be written to.
 

Willie has over 15 years of experience in Linux system administration and DevOps. After managing infrastructure for startups and enterprises alike, he founded Command Linux to share the practical knowledge he wished he had when starting out. He oversees content strategy and contributes guides on server management, automation, and security.