[Aspell-user] Where is the personal dictionary for English language?

[Swarup]

Hello,
In my home directory there is a hidden file by the name .aspell.hi.pws,
which is the "personal" aspell Hindi dictionary i.e if I add words to
the Hindi dictionary, they get added to this file. In the same way if I
add a word to the English dictionary, where is the file to which the
word gets added? I don't see a similarly named file for English in my
home directory. Sometimes I may add a word in error, and later need to
remove it. For that reason I am asking.

Thanks,
Swarup

[Kevin Atkinson]

Post by Swarup
In my home directory there is a hidden file by the name .aspell.hi.pws,
which is the "personal" aspell Hindi dictionary i.e if I add words to
the Hindi dictionary, they get added to this file. In the same way if I
add a word to the English dictionary, where is the file to which the
word gets added? I don't see a similarly named file for English in my
home directory. Sometimes I may add a word in error, and later need to
remove it. For that reason I am asking.

It should be ".aspell.en.pws". It may not exist because you have not
added any English words to your personal dictionary.

[Kevin Atkinson]

[Added aspell-user back on the CC list, please do not email me directly.]

Post by Kevin Atkinson

Post by Swarup
In my home directory there is a hidden file by the name .aspell.hi.pws,
which is the "personal" aspell Hindi dictionary i.e if I add words to
the Hindi dictionary, they get added to this file. In the same way if I
add a word to the English dictionary, where is the file to which the
word gets added? I don't see a similarly named file for English in my
home directory. Sometimes I may add a word in error, and later need to
remove it. For that reason I am asking.

It should be ".aspell.en.pws". It may not exist because you have not
added any English words to your personal dictionary.

I have added many words. Not only that, but I have added some which I
wish to remove. That is the reason I was searching for this file.

Then try this do:
aspell --lang=en dump config

Than at the value of the following settings:
home-dir
personal

It should tell the the exact value when configured for the English
language. If that doesn't help than I really don't know where Aspell is
storing them. It could be that it is really Hunspell that is being used,
in which case I can not help you.

[Swarup]

Post by Kevin Atkinson
[Added aspell-user back on the CC list, please do not email me directly.]

Post by Kevin Atkinson

Post by Swarup
In my home directory there is a hidden file by the name .aspell.hi.pws,
which is the "personal" aspell Hindi dictionary i.e if I add words to
the Hindi dictionary, they get added to this file. In the same way if I
add a word to the English dictionary, where is the file to which the
word gets added? I don't see a similarly named file for English in my
home directory. Sometimes I may add a word in error, and later need to
remove it. For that reason I am asking.

It should be ".aspell.en.pws". It may not exist because you have not
added any English words to your personal dictionary.

I have added many words. Not only that, but I have added some which I
wish to remove. That is the reason I was searching for this file.

aspell --lang=en dump config
home-dir
personal
It should tell the the exact value when configured for the English
language. If that doesn't help than I really don't know where Aspell is
storing them. It could be that it is really Hunspell that is being used,
in which case I can not help you.

Is this what you are referring to--

# home-dir (string)
# location for personal files
# default: <$HOME|./> = /home/swarup

I am not using Hunspell, to the best of my knowledge. I am working in
gedit, and the spellchecker I am using is aspell. I edit the aspell
Hindi dictionary all the time, adding to it, changing words, removing
words. And in the gedit tools menu I can select English or Hindi as the
spellchecker. If the Hindi spellchecker in that very menu is aspell,
then I would imagine the English spellchecker is also aspell.

[Kevin Atkinson]

Post by Swarup

Post by Kevin Atkinson

Post by Kevin Atkinson

Post by Swarup
In my home directory there is a hidden file by the name .aspell.hi.pws,
which is the "personal" aspell Hindi dictionary i.e if I add words to
the Hindi dictionary, they get added to this file. In the same way if I
add a word to the English dictionary, where is the file to which the
word gets added? I don't see a similarly named file for English in my
home directory. Sometimes I may add a word in error, and later need to
remove it. For that reason I am asking.

It should be ".aspell.en.pws". It may not exist because you have not
added any English words to your personal dictionary.

I have added many words. Not only that, but I have added some which I
wish to remove. That is the reason I was searching for this file.

aspell --lang=en dump config
home-dir
personal
It should tell the the exact value when configured for the English
language. If that doesn't help than I really don't know where Aspell is
storing them. It could be that it is really Hunspell that is being used,
in which case I can not help you.

Is this what you are referring to--
# home-dir (string)
# location for personal files
# default: <$HOME|./> = /home/swarup

Yes and one that should look like this:

# personal (string)
# personal dictionary file name
# default: .aspell.<lang>.pws = .aspell.en.pws

The "default:" line tells you what the effective value is.

Post by Swarup
I am not using Hunspell, to the best of my knowledge. I am working in
gedit, and the spellchecker I am using is aspell. I edit the aspell
Hindi dictionary all the time, adding to it, changing words, removing
words. And in the gedit tools menu I can select English or Hindi as the
spellchecker. If the Hindi spellchecker in that very menu is aspell,
then I would imagine the English spellchecker is also aspell.

Never versions of gedit may use Enchant, which can use different spell
checkers for different languages. It could be that Aspell was chosen for
Hindi, but Hunspell for English.

You can also make sure Aspell is being used by creating a document with
some words you know are in the personal dictionary and then checking it
using "aspell check".

[Swarup]

Post by Kevin Atkinson

Post by Swarup

Post by Kevin Atkinson

Post by Kevin Atkinson

Post by Swarup
In my home directory there is a hidden file by the name .aspell.hi.pws,
which is the "personal" aspell Hindi dictionary i.e if I add words to
the Hindi dictionary, they get added to this file. In the same way if I
add a word to the English dictionary, where is the file to which the
word gets added? I don't see a similarly named file for English in my
home directory. Sometimes I may add a word in error, and later need to
remove it. For that reason I am asking.

It should be ".aspell.en.pws". It may not exist because you have not
added any English words to your personal dictionary.

I have added many words. Not only that, but I have added some which I
wish to remove. That is the reason I was searching for this file.

aspell --lang=en dump config
home-dir
personal
It should tell the the exact value when configured for the English
language. If that doesn't help than I really don't know where Aspell is
storing them. It could be that it is really Hunspell that is being used,
in which case I can not help you.

Is this what you are referring to--
# home-dir (string)
# location for personal files
# default: <$HOME|./> = /home/swarup

# personal (string)
# personal dictionary file name
# default: .aspell.<lang>.pws = .aspell.en.pws
The "default:" line tells you what the effective value is.

Can you tell me how to change the setting, so that it will look as you
say it should look. I very much want to be able to edit that personal
English dictionary.

I am somewhat confused at this point as to where all those words I
added, have been saved.

Post by Kevin Atkinson

Post by Swarup
I am not using Hunspell, to the best of my knowledge. I am working in
gedit, and the spellchecker I am using is aspell. I edit the aspell
Hindi dictionary all the time, adding to it, changing words, removing
words. And in the gedit tools menu I can select English or Hindi as the
spellchecker. If the Hindi spellchecker in that very menu is aspell,
then I would imagine the English spellchecker is also aspell.

Never versions of gedit may use Enchant, which can use different spell
checkers for different languages. It could be that Aspell was chosen for
Hindi, but Hunspell for English.

I do not have a newer version of gedit. I am running Ubuntu 9.04, and
the gedit version is "gedit 2.26.1"

Post by Kevin Atkinson
You can also make sure Aspell is being used by creating a document with
some words you know are in the personal dictionary and then checking it
using "aspell check".

I can do so, but I think you'll see by the gedit version that it is not
new, and I believe predates the inclusion of Enchant.

[Kevin Atkinson]

Post by Swarup

Post by Kevin Atkinson
# personal (string)
# personal dictionary file name
# default: .aspell.<lang>.pws = .aspell.en.pws
The "default:" line tells you what the effective value is.

Can you tell me how to change the setting, so that it will look as you
say it should look. I very much want to be able to edit that personal
English dictionary.

Please see the manual. There are multiple ways to configure Aspell. A
personal configuration file will be your best bet.

Post by Swarup
I am somewhat confused at this point as to where all those words I
added, have been saved.

If its not ".aspell.en.pws" I do not know where it will be. Is there no
other files that start with ".aspell" in your home directory?

Post by Swarup

Post by Kevin Atkinson
You can also make sure Aspell is being used by creating a document with
some words you know are in the personal dictionary and then checking it
using "aspell check".

I can do so, but I think you'll see by the gedit version that it is not
new, and I believe predates the inclusion of Enchant.

Well, this is the only way I will be convinced Aspell is being used.


Also, it could be gedit is changing the settings. At this point I can't
really give you any more advice other than use strace on gedit and look
for any files opened with "aspell" or "en", etc in the name.