DICT - DICT File Format

DICT File Format

The standard dictd server made by the DICT Development Group uses a special DICT file format, although other dictd servers (such as GNU Dico) may optionally use other file formats.

Dictionaries in the standard DICT file format are made up of two files, a .index file and a .dict file (or .dict.dz if compressed). These files are not usually written manually but are compiled by a program called dictfmt. For example, the Unix command:

dictfmt—utf8—allchars -s "My Dictionary" -j mydict < mydict.txt

will compile a Unicode-compatible DICT file called mydict, with heading My Dictionary, from mydict.txt which is in Jargon File format i.e.:

:word1:definition 1 :word2:definition 2 etc.

Once the dictionary file has been produced, installing it in the server is normally a matter of typing something like:

mv mydict.dict mydict.index /usr/share/dictd/ /usr/sbin/dictdconfig -—write /etc/init.d/dictd restart

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