aspell-autobuildhash

aspell-autobuildhash <wordlist_file> <output_hash_file>

<wordlist_file>
    The input file containing the list of words to be included in the hash file. Each word should typically be on a separate line.

<output_hash_file>
    The name of the output hash file to be created (e.g., my_dictionary.hash). This file will contain the hash representation of the word list.

The aspell-autobuildhash command is designed to automatically generate an aspell hash (.hash) file from a given word list. It simplifies the process of creating custom dictionaries for the aspell spell checker. Aspell uses hash files to efficiently store and retrieve word lists. This tool automatically determines the best hash function and parameters to use for optimal performance with the provided word list.

The command analyzes the word list, calculates appropriate hash function parameters based on the input data, and then generates the .hash file. It handles the underlying complexities of creating aspell dictionary files, making custom dictionaries easier to create and maintain. This command is useful for creating personal dictionaries, or specialized vocabularies such as scientific or technical terms, for use with aspell.

The performance of the generated hash file depends on the quality and structure of the input wordlist. The generated hash file is specific to the version of aspell used. Using the hash file with a different version of aspell may cause unexpected behavior or errors.

The input wordlist_file should be a plain text file with one word per line. The words should be in a format that aspell can understand and use for spell checking. Ensure that the word list contains only valid words and that there are no extraneous characters or formatting issues. Empty lines and comments are allowed and ignored.

To create a hash file named my_dict.hash from a word list file named my_words.txt, you would run:
aspell-autobuildhash my_words.txt my_dict.hash

aspell(1), wordlist(5)