4.1.2 Via a Configuration File

Aspell can also accept options via a personal or global configuration file. The exact files to used are specified by the options ‘per-conf’ and ‘conf’ respectively but the personal configuration file is normally ‘.aspell.conf’ located in the HOME directory and the global one is normally ‘aspell.conf’ which is located in the ‘etc’ directory which is normally ‘/usr/etc’ or ‘/usr/local/etc’. To find out the particular values for your particular system use aspell dump config.

Each line of the configuration file has the format:

option [value]

There may be any number of spaces between the option and the value however it can only be spaces, i.e. there is no ‘=’ between the option name and the value and there are no preceding ‘--’ as used on the command line.

Comments may also be included by preceding them with a ‘#’ as anything from a ‘#’ to a newline is ignored. Blank lines are also allowed.

To include a literal ‘#’ use ‘\#’. To include a literal ‘\’ use ‘\\’. Any other non-alpha character can also be protected by a ‘\’ if necessary.

Any non-ASCII characters are expected to be in UTF-8.

To reset an option to the default value prefix the option with a ‘reset-’ and don’t specify a value.

Values set in the personal configuration file override those in the global file. Options specified at either the command line or via an environment variable override those specified by either configuration file.

Note: Filters and corresponding options also may be assembled inside a special meta filter file named ‘metafilter.flt’. A filter has to be loaded via adding a add-filter filtername line to the meta filter file before its options may be specified.