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NAME

rdict - a DICT protocol client

SYNOPSIS

rdict [-h|--host server] [-p|--port service] [-d|--database dbname]
      [-m|--match] [-s|--strategy strategy] [-C|--nocorrect]
      [-D|--dbs] [-S|--strats] [-H|--serverhelp] [-i|--info dbname]
      [-I|--serverinfo] [-T|--status] [-b|--debug] [-u|--user user]
      [-k|--key key] [-v|--verbose] word
rdict [--help|-v|--version]

DESCRIPTION

rdict is an RFC 2229 compliant Dictionary Server Protocol (DICT) client that provides access to dictionary definitions from a set of natural language dictionary databases.

OPTIONS

-h server or --host server: Specifies the hostname for the DICT server. If no servers are specified, the default behavior is to try dict.org, followed by alt0.dict.org.
-p port or --port port: Specifies the port (e.g. 2628) or service (e.g. dict) for connections. The default is 2628, as specified in the DICT Protocol RFC.
-d dbname or --database dbname: Specifies a specific database to search. The default is to search all databases (a '*' from the DICT protocol). Note that a '!' in the DICT protocol means to search all of the databases until a match is found, and then stop searching.
-m or --match: Instead of printing a definition, perform a match using the specified strategy.
-s strategy or --strategy strategy: Specify a matching strategy. By default, the server default match strategy is used. This is usually 'exact' for definitions, and a server-defined optimal spelling correction strategy for matches ('.' from the DICT protocol). The available strategies are dependent on the server implemenation. For a list of available strategies, see the -S or --strats option.
-C or --nocorrect: Usually, if a definition is requested and the word cannot be found, spelling correction is requested from the server, and a list of possible words are provided. This option disables the generation of this list.
-D or --dbs: Query the server and display a list of available databases.
-S or --strats: Query the server and display a list of available search strategies.
-H or --serverhelp: Query the server and display the help information that it provides.
-i dbname or --info dbname: Request information on the specified database (usually the server will provide origination, descriptive or other information about the database or its contents).
-I or --serverinfo: Query the server and display information about the server.
-T or --status: Query the server for status information.
-u user or --user user: Specifies the username for authentication.
-k key or --key key: Specifies the shared secret for authentication.
-V or --version: Display version information.
--help: Display help information.
-v or --verbose: Be verbose.
-b or --debug: Display debugging information. This is long-winded, as the entire protocol exchange will be dumped.

EXAMPLES

$ rdict -D: This will provide you with a list of databases you can query.
$ rdict -S: This will provide you with a list of strategies you can employ to match words.
$ rdict -m -s prefix foo: This shows you a list of all words that begin with 'foo' in all of the databases.
$ rdict -m -s re '^(cu|ke)rb$': This shows you all the definitions relating to both 'curb' and 'kerb' from all the databases. The 're' strategy allows regular expression matching.
$ rdict -m -s suffix fix: This shows a list of all words that end in 'fix' in all of the databases.
$ rdict -d jargon -m -s prefix '': This displays a list of all the entries in the 'jargon' database.

AUTHOR

Written by Ian Macdonald <ian@caliban.org>

COPYRIGHT

BUGS

MIME is not implemented
command pipelining is not implemented
URL parsing is not implemented