[SOLVED] Auto copy Firefox words in persdict.dat to other word files.

linustalman · 07-03-2014, 08:20 AM

Hi.

I add custom words in Firefox to this file: ~/.mozilla/firefox/XXXXXXXX.default/persdict.dat

I'd like a command to auto copy those persdict.dat words to these 2 files:
~/.config/enchant/en.dic
~/.thunderbird/YYYYYYYY.default/persdict.dat'

Thanks.

unSpawn · 07-04-2014, 01:09 AM

What's the format of these files? Plain text, Mork, sqlite3 database or?..

linustalman · 07-04-2014, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unSpawn

What's the format of these files? Plain text, Mork, sqlite3 database or?..

Hi unSpawn.

Using the file command:
.mozilla...persdict.dat: C++ source, UTF-8 Unicode text
.thunderbird...persdict.dat: ASCII text
.config/enchant/en.dic: C++ source, UTF-8 Unicode text

unSpawn · 07-04-2014, 01:24 PM

No idea what char sequences make it say "C++ source" but for me (FF 30.0 here) the "persdict.dat" appears to be plain text. I don't have any .config/enchant/ dictionaries in use. http://www.abisource.com/enchant/ says enchant isn't a spell checking library at all but requires backends like aspell. Could you read one of your ~/.config/enchant/*.dic files to see what it contains?

linustalman · 07-05-2014, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unSpawn

No idea what char sequences make it say "C++ source" but for me (FF 30.0 here) the "persdict.dat" appears to be plain text. I don't have any .config/enchant/ dictionaries in use. http://www.abisource.com/enchant/ says enchant isn't a spell checking library at all but requires backends like aspell. Could you read one of your ~/.config/enchant/*.dic files to see what it contains?

I ran this on a test Linux Mint 17 MATE VirtualBox VM in ~/.mozilla: file persdict.dat persdict.dat: ASCII text

The en.dic file in ~/.config/enchant/ contains words I've added manually overtime.

unSpawn · 07-06-2014, 06:20 AM

OK, so basically both are ASCII text files. You could (should) make backups and $(sort -u $EACH_FILE) and create a central source from which to populate those three files (inotify CLOSE_WRITE trigger?) but I'm not sure if those changes will stick while the application is running. Only one way to find out ;-p

linustalman · 07-06-2014, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unSpawn

OK, so basically both are ASCII text files. You could (should) make backups and $(sort -u $EACH_FILE) and create a central source from which to populate those three files (inotify CLOSE_WRITE trigger?) but I'm not sure if those changes will stick while the application is running. Only one way to find out ;-p

Could you elaborate on that? Giving a step by step process?

linustalman · 07-08-2014, 02:34 PM

The most important bit is to copy (with a single command to add to an alias) all the contents of the .mozilla persdict.dat file to the .thunderbird persdict.dat file. I can manually update the en.dic file.

unSpawn · 07-08-2014, 04:52 PM

I think I'm making this too difficult ;-p If all three dictionaries are plain text files containing only the words you add one per line then why not simply symlink two to the one you always edit?

linustalman · 07-09-2014, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unSpawn

I think I'm making this too difficult ;-p If all three dictionaries are plain text files containing only the words you add one per line then why not simply symlink two to the one you always edit?

The perfect solution. Cheers unSpawn.

I used the Firefox persdict.dat as the main file and linked from it with the same name to .thunderbird and changed link name to 'en.dic' for the file in .config/enchant/ which is used by Pluma, etc.

linustalman · 08-04-2014, 04:00 AM

Can I also use this with LibreOffice spellcheck?