dictd

dictd is a server implementing the DICT protocol, allowing clients to search dictionaries.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for app-text/dictd Dictionary Client/Server for the DICT protocol

`dbi`	Enable dev-db/libdbi (database-independent abstraction layer) support
`judy`	Build Judy-based (dev-libs/judy) plugin implementing fast "exact" and especially "lev" strategies
`minimal`	Don't build server but dict client, dictzip and dictfmt only.
`selinux`	!!internal use only!! Security Enhanced Linux support, this must be set by the selinux profile or breakage will occur
`test`	Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-09-12 18:37 More information about USE flags

Emerge

Install app-text/dictd:

root #emerge --ask app-text/dictd

Dictionaries

At least one dictd dictionary package must be installed before starting the server. Dictionaries in the dict format can be found in the app-dicts category with the prefixes dictd- and freedict-.

The WordNet dictionary is available as app-dicts/dictd-wn.

Other dictd dictionary packages are available on GURU. The app-dicts/dictd-meta package installs the following packages:

app-dicts/dictd-devils - The Devil's Dictionary
app-dicts/dictd-elements - Jay Kominek's database of the elements
app-dicts/dictd-foldoc - The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
app-dicts/dictd-gazetteer - The original U.S. Gazetteer Place and Zipcode Files
app-dicts/dictd-gcide - Collaborative International Dictionary of English (incl. Webster 1913)
app-dicts/dictd-jargon - The Jargon File
app-dicts/dictd-misc - Hitchcock's and Easton's Bible Dictionaries
app-dicts/dictd-vera - Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms
app-dicts/dictd-wn - WordNet

A thesaurus is also available on GURU: app-dicts/dictd-moby-thesaurus.

The freedict packages install .tar.gz files available on SourceForge; additional FreeDict dictionaries, in .tar.xz format, are available for downloading from freedict.org. To install one of these dictionaries, run:

root #tar -xvJf <name>.xz -C /usr/share/dict/ --strip-components=1 --exclude=COPYING

and then restart the dictd service.

Configuration

Server configuration

/etc/dict/dict.conf lists dictionary servers, one per line. By default, it contains:

FILE /etc/dict/dict.conf

# This is the configuration file for dict.
# Usually all you will ever need here is the server keywords.
# Refer to the dict manpage for other options.
# It will only check the second server if the first fails
server localhost
server dict.org

Refer to the dict(1) man page for possible configuration options.

/etc/dict/dictd.conf configures individual dictionaries; refer to dictd(8) for possible configuration options. On OpenRC systems, this file should not need to be edited manually - even if installing new dictionaries manually rather than via a package, the new dictionaries should be configured by the service script automatically upon (re-)starting.

Service

OpenRC

Add the service to the default runlevel:

root #rc-update add dictd default

Start the service:

root #rc-service dictd start

If additional dictionaries are added, be sure to restart the service:

root #rc-service dictd restart

systemd

To have the dictd daemon start when the system starts:

root #systemctl enable dictd.service

To start the dictd daemon immediately:

root #systemctl start dictd.service

To check if the service has started:

root #systemctl status dictd.service

To restart the service:

root #systemctl restart dictd.service

Clients

The app-text/dictd package provides the dict(1) client, but other clients include app-dicts/gnome-dictionary, xfce-extra/xfce4-dict, and dictionary.el in app-editors/emacs 28 and later.