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Net-Dict-1.07
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NAME

dict - a perl client for accessing network dictionary servers

SYNOPSIS

dict [OPTIONS] word

DESCRIPTION

dict is a client for the Dictionary server protocol (DICT), which is used to query natural language dictionaries hosted on a remote machine. When used in the most simple way,

% dict word

dict will look for definitions of word in the dictionaries hosted at dict.org. You can specify the hostname of the DICT server using the -h option:

% dict -h dict.org dictionary

A DICT server can support a number of databases; you can use the -d option to specify a particular database. For example, you can look up computer-related terms in the Free On-line Dictionary Of Computing (FOLDOC) using:

% dict -h dict.org -d foldoc byte

To find out what databases (dictionaries) are available on a server, use the -dbs option:

% dict -dbs

There are many dictionaries hosted on other servers around the net; a list of some of them can be found at

http://www.dict.org/links.html

MATCHING

Instead of requesting word definitions, you can use dict to request a list of words which match a pattern. For example, to look for four-letter words starting in 'b' and ending in 'p', you would use:

% dict -match -strategy re '^b..p$'

The -match option says you want a list of matching words rather than a definition. The -strategy re says to use POSIX regular expressions when matching the pattern ^b..p$.

Most DICT servers support a number of matching strategies; you can get a list of the strategies provided by a server using the -strats switch:

% dict -h dict.org -strats

OPTIONS

-h server or -host server

The hostname for the DICT server. If one isn't specified then defaults to dict.org.

-p port or -port port

Specify the port for connections (default is 2628, from RFC 2229).

-d dbname or -database dbname

The name of a specific database (dictionary) to query.

-m or -match

Look for words which match the pattern (using the specified strategy).

-i dbname or -info dbname

Request information on the specified database. Typically results in a couple of pages of text.

-c string or -client string

Specify the CLIENT identification string sent to the DICT server.

-D or -dbs

List the available databases (dictionaries) on the DICT server.

-s strategy or -strategy strategy

Specify a matching strategy. Used in combination with -match.

-S or -strats

List the matching strategies (used in -strategy) supported by the DICT server.

-I or -serverinfo

Request information on the selected DICT server.

-help

Display a short help message including command-line options.

-doc

Display the full documentation for dict.

-version

Display the version of dict

-verbose

Display verbose information as dict runs.

-debug

Display debugging information as dict runs. Useful mainly for developers.

KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

  • dict doesn't know how to handle firewalls.

  • The authentication aspects of RFC 2229 aren't currently supported.

  • Display of list results (eg from -strats and -dbs) could be better.

  • dict isn't very smart at handling combinations of options.

  • Currently no support for a configuration file - will add one soon.

SEE ALSO

www.dict.org

The DICT home page, with all sorts of useful information. There are a number of other DICT clients available.

dict

The C dict client written by Rik Faith; the options are pretty much lifted from Rik's client.

RFC 2229

The document which defines the DICT network protocol.

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc2229.html

Net::Dict

The perl module which implements the client API for RFC 2229.

VERSION

$Revision: 1.2 $

AUTHOR

Neil Bowers <neilb@cre.canon.co.uk>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2001 Canon Research Centre Europe. All rights reserved.

This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.