gedit user dictionary location
 

I use gedit a lot.
However, when I upgrade or change my system, the dictionary containing words I have added disappears.
I would like to locate the user-created dictionary on Ubuntu and put it in a folder where it would get backed up with the rest. Then I would replace it in its location with a symbolic link to its new location.
The problem is that after much searching on gedit-list archives and posting to the list and googling and checking the man page and doing an aspell dump, I can't get an answer to my question:
Where can I find the gedit spell checker dictionary on Ubuntu.

Assuming you're adding stuff to the dictionary as a non-root user then logically the relevant file(s) should be in your home directory somewhere. Try this:

Add a new word to the dictionary.

This will give you a list of all files created or modified since your ran the touch command. Hopefully one of them is the dictionary.

Sorry it took me so long to reply.
I applied your code examples, but all I got is some firefox and network related stuff:

.mozilla/firefox/mx77xf74.default/places.sqlite-journal
.mozilla/firefox/mx77xf74.default/cookies.sqlite-journal
.mozilla/firefox/mx77xf74.default/places.sqlite
.mozilla/firefox/mx77xf74.default/cookies.sqlite
.gconf/apps/nm-applet
.gconf/system/networking/connections/1/802-11-wireless
.gconf/system/networking/connections/1/802-11-wireless/%gconf.xml
.gconf/system/networking/connections/1/connection
.gconf/system/networking/connections/1/connection/%gconf.xml
.gconf/system/networking/connections/1/802-11-wireless-security
.gconf/system/networking/connections/1/802-11-wireless-security/%gconf.xml

Also, since I installed Ubuntu, gedit doesn't seem to really add the words to a user dic, since when I reopen the document and do an autocheck spelling, the same words are still underlined.
Could it be some kind of permission problem?

Same problem
 

I am having the same problem. When I add a word to the dictionary, in straight text mode, the underline disappears. When I am finished editing I save the file and close gedit. The next time I open the file all my added words aren't there. It doesn't seem to be adding the words permanently to the dictionary. Is there a way to make changes permanent? I am using Linux Mint, based on Ubuntu 9.10. It would be so much quicker if I can make this happen.
Thanks
lrfocke

I have solved the problem of saving added words. Instead of having my language English (basic) I switched it to English (United States), being that is where I live. But now my question is how do I make that my default language? Every time I start gedit I have to re-set my language, it defaults to English (basic). It's better than having to add words to the dictionary every time, but still is a bit of a hassle. Any ideas?
The gedit that I have is version 2.28.0 running on Linux Mint 8, if that helps.
Thanks
lrfocke

Did you check ~/.aspell* ?

Evo2.

For me, ~/.aspell* doesn't exist. It doesn't seem to have been created. By the way, if I haven't mentioned it already, I work in two languages, English and French, and switch regularly from one to the other.

Evo2,

Thanks, but like S. Chapelin I don't seem to have a hidden file or directory called .aspell* anywhere in my home directory. I found aspell and a perl script at /usr/bin. File names aspell and aspell-import (the perl)
Here is the first part of the script:

#!/usr/bin/perl

#
# aspell-import -- Perl script to import old dictionaries
#
# This file is part of The New Aspell
# Copyright (C) 2001-2002 by Kevin Atkinson under the GNU LGPL
# license version 2.0 or 2.1. You should have received a copy of the
# LGPL license along with this library if you did not you can find it
# at http://www.gnu.org/.



%abrv = qw( american en

______________

It looks like american en is set default but I don't know perl all that well. Is there supposed to be a local version somewhere?

Thanks
lrfocke

I have also found the text file /tmp/gedit.rossf.703406717 but it has 0 bytes and won't open because there is nothing there. It was created twenty minutes ago and accessed 10 minutes ago.

Don't know if this helps
lrfocke

One thing you can do to find where gedit is getting the dictionary from is to run it under strace, then you should be able to see all the files that it reads from.

Cheers,

Evo2.

Thank you evo2 for teaching me:

Code:

strace gedit

I used it, and on line #3gadzillion I found:

open("/home/gillesg/.enchant/fr_CA.dic", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

so I created the directory and the file and it worked. Now I can add new words to my personnal dictionary and they stick.
Thanks again. You are a great teacher.


Thanks also to arizonagroovejet for the following:


Code:

$ touch /tmp/now

Add a new word to the dictionary.

Code:

$ find $HOME -newer /tmp/now

I have written both tips in a special directory I keep called 'info', where I put all the new things I learn.

Try Tomboy Notes
 

I use Tomboy Notes for that purpose. It makes it easier to organize the information into "notebooks", hyperlinks are live, and one can use basic HTML/XML formatting on text. My joy will be complete when they figure out a way to embed images in the notes.

Incidentally, on my Ubuntu 10.04 system with Gedit 2.30.3, the personal dictionary files are located in ~/.config/enchant.