.TH WORD\-LIST\-COMPRESS 1 "2005-09-05" "GNU" "Aspell Abbreviated User's Manual"
.SH NAME
word\-list\-compress \- word list compressor/decompressor for GNU Aspell
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B word-list-compress
\fBc\fR[\fBompress\fR] | \fBd\fR[\fBecompress\fR]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B word-list-compress
compresses or decompresses sorted word lists for use with the GNU Aspell
spell checker.
.SH COMMANDS
.TP
\fB\-c\fR, \fBc\fR, \fBcompress\fR
compress the plain text word list read from standard input.
.TP
\fB\-d\fR, \fBd\fR, \fBdecompress\fR
decompress the compressed word list read from standard input.
.SH EXAMPLES
Here are a few examples of how you can use
.I word\-list\-compress
.TP
word\-list\-compress \fBd\fR <wordlist.cwl >wordlist.txt
Decompress file wordlist.cwl to text file wordlist.txt
.TP
word\-list\-compress \fBc\fR <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
.TP
LC_COLLATE\=C sort \-u <wordlist.txt \fB|\fR word\-list\-compress c >wordlist.cwl
Sort a word list, then pipe it to
.I word\-list\-compress
to create a compressed binary wordlist.cwl file.
.TP
word\-list\-compress d <words.cwl \fB|\fR aspell create master ./words.rws
Decompress a wordlist, then pipe it to
.I aspell(1)
to create a spelling list.  Please check the
.I aspell(1)
info manual for proper usage and options.
.SH TIPS
.I 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.
.PP
.I 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
.I prezip\-bin(1)
.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
.I 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
.I word\-list\-compress
exits with a non-zero return value.  Error messages are listed below:
.TP
\fB(display help/usage message)\fR
Unknown command given on the command line so
.I word\-list\-compress
displays a usage message to standard error output.
.TP
\fBCorrupt Input\fR
This is only for the decompression command \fBd\fR.  The input file is
of an unknown format or the input file/stream is corrupted.  You may
have some valid output, but
.I 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
.I prezip\-bin(1)
version of compressed file, if so, try decompressing the file with
.I prezip\-bin(1)
instead.
.TP
\fBOutput Data Error\fR
The output is full, write protected, or has an error and can no longer
be written to.
.SH SEE ALSO
.PP
.BR aspell (1),
.BR prezip\-bin (1),
.BR run\-with\-aspell (1)
.PP
Aspell is fully documented in its Texinfo manual.  See the
.RB "`\|" aspell "\|'"
entry in
.B info
for more complete documentation.
.SH REPORTING BUGS
For help, see the Aspell homepage at <http://aspell.net> and send bug
reports/comments to the Aspell user list at the above address.
.SH AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Aaron Lehmann <aaronl@vitelus.com>,
Brian Nelson <pyro@debian.org> and Jose Da Silva <digital@joescat.com>.
