Provided by: dictd_1.12.1+dfsg-2_amd64 bug

NAME

       dictd - a dictionary database server

SYNOPSIS

       dictd [options]

DESCRIPTION

       dictd  is  a  server  for  the  Dictionary Server Protocol (DICT), a TCP transaction based
       query/response protocol that allows a client to access dictionary definitions from  a  set
       of natural language dictionary databases.

       For security reasons, dictd drops root permissions after startup.  If user dictd exists on
       the system, the daemon will run as that user, group dictd, otherwise it will run  as  user
       nobody, group nobody or nogroup (depending on the operating system distribution).

       Since  startup time is significant, the server is designed to run continuously, and should
       not be run from inetd(8).  (However, with a fast processor, it is feasible to do so.)

       Databases are distributed separately from the server.

       By default, dictd assumes that  the  index  files  are  sorted  alphabetically,  and  only
       alphanumeric  characters  from  the  7-bit  ASCII character set are used for search.  This
       default may be overridden  by  a  header  in  the  data  file.   The  only  such  features
       implemented  at  this  time  are the headers "00-database-allchars" which tells dictd that
       non-alphanumeric characters may also be used for  search,  the  header  "00-database-utf8"
       which indicates that the database uses utf8 encoding, and the "00-database-8bit-new" which
       indicates that the database is encoded and sorted according to a locale that uses an 8-bit
       encoding.

BACKGROUND

       For  many years, the Internet community has relied on the "webster" protocol for access to
       natural language definitions.  The webster protocol supports access to a single dictionary
       and (optionally) to a single thesaurus.  In recent years, the number of publicly available
       webster servers on the Internet has dramatically decreased.

       Fortunately, several freely-distributable dictionaries and lexicons have  recently  become
       available  on  the  Internet.   However,  these  freely-distributable  databases  are  not
       accessible via a uniform interface, and are not accessible from a single site.   They  are
       often small and incomplete individually, but would collectively provide an interesting and
       useful database of English words.  Examples include the Jargon file, the WordNet database,
       MICRA's  version  of the 1913 Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, and the Free Online
       Dictionary of Computing.  (See the DICT  protocol  specification  (RFC)  for  references.)
       Translating  and  non-English  dictionaries  are also becoming available (for example, the
       FOLDOC dictionary is being translated into Spanish).

       The webster protocol is not suitable for providing access to a large  number  of  separate
       dictionary databases, and extensions to the current webster protocol were not felt to be a
       clean solution to the dictionary database problem.

       The DICT protocol is designed to provide access to multiple databases.   Word  definitions
       can  be  requested,  the  word  index  can  be  searched  (using an easily extended set of
       algorithms), information about the server  can  be  provided  (e.g.,  which  index  search
       strategies  are  supported,  or  which  databases  are available), and information about a
       database can  be  provided  (e.g.,  copyright,  citation,  or  distribution  information).
       Further, the DICT protocol has hooks that can be used to restrict access to some or all of
       the databases.

       dictd(8) is a server that implements the DICT protocol.  Bret Martin  implemented  another
       server,  and  several  people  (including  Bret  and myself) have implemented clients in a
       variety of languages.

OPTIONS

       -V or --version
              Display version information.

       --license
              Display copyright and license information.

       -h or --help
              Display help information.

       -v or --verbose or  -dverbose
              Be verbose.

       -c file or --config file
              Specify configuration file.  The default is  /etc/dictd/dictd.conf  ,  but  may  be
              changed in the defs.h file at compile time (DICTD_CONFIG_FILE).

       -p port or --port port
              Overrides   the   keyword   port   in  Global  Settings  Specification  section  of
              configuration file.

       -i or --inetd
              Communicate on standard input/output, suitable for use from inetd.   Although,  due
              to  its  rather large startup time, this daemon was not intended to run from inetd,
              with a fast processor it is feasible to do so. This  option  also  implies  --fast-
              start.

       --pp prog
              Sets   a   preprocessor  for  configuration  file.   like    m4  or    cpp  .   See
              examples/dictd_complex.conf file from distribution. By default  configuration  file
              is parsed without preprocessor.

       --depth length
              Overrides   the   keyword   depth  in  Global  Settings  Specification  section  of
              configuration file.

       --delay seconds
              Overrides  the  keyword  delay  in  Global  Settings   Specification   section   of
              configuration file.

       --facility facility
              The   same   as   syslog_facility  keyword  in  Global  Settings  Specification  of
              configuration files.

       -f or --force
              Force the daemon to start even if an instance of the  daemon  is  already  running.
              (This  is of little value unless a non-default port is specified with -p, since, if
              one instance is bound to a port, the second one fails when it can not bind  to  the
              port.)

       --limit children
              Overrides   the   keyword   limit  in  Global  Settings  Specification  section  of
              configuration file.

       --listen-to address
              Overrides the  keyword  listen_to  in  Global  Settings  Specification  section  of
              configuration file.

       --locale locale
              Overrides   the   keyword  locale  in  Global  Settings  Specification  section  of
              configuration file.

       -s     The same as syslog keyword in Global Settings Specification of configuration files.

       -L file or --logfile file
              The same as log_file keyword in  Global  Settings  Specification  of  configuration
              files.

       --pid-file file
              The  same  as  pid_file  keyword  in Global Settings Specification of configuration
              files.

       -m minutes  or --mark minutes
              Overrides the  keyword  timestamp  in  Global  Settings  Specification  section  of
              configuration file.

       --default-strategy strategy
              Overrides  the keyword default_strategy in Global Settings Specification section of
              configuration file.

       --without-strategy strat1,strat2,...
              The  same  as  without_strategy  keyword  in  Global  Settings   Specification   of
              configuration files.

       --add-strategy strategy_name:description
              The  same as add_strategy keyword in Global Settings Specification of configuration
              files.

       --fast-start
              The same as fast_start keyword in Global Settings  Specification  of  configuration
              files.

       --without-mmap
              The  same as without_mmap keyword in Global Settings Specification of configuration
              files.

       --stdin2stdout
              When applied with --inetd, each command obtained from stdin is  output  to  stdout.
              This option is useful for debugging.

       -l option or --log option
              The  same  as  log_option keyword in Global Settings Specification of configuration
              files.

       -d option
              The same as debug_option keyword in Global Settings Specification of  configuration
              files.

CONFIGURATION FILE

       Introduction
              The  configuration  file  defaults to /etc/dictd/dictd.conf but can be specified on
              the command line with the -c option (see above).

              The configuration file is read into memory at startup, and is not referenced  again
              by  dictd  unless a signal 1 (SIGHUP) is received, which will cause dictd to reread
              the configuration file.

              The file is divided into sections.  The Access Section should come first,  followed
              by  the  Database Section, and the User Section.  The Database Section is required;
              the others are optional, but they must be in the order listed here.

       Syntax The following keywords are valid in a  configuration  file:  access,  allow,  deny,
              group,  database,  data, index, filter, prefilter, postfilter, name, include, user,
              authonly, site.  Keywords are case sensitive.  String arguments that contain spaces
              should  be  surrounded  by  double  quotes.   Without  quoting, strings may contain
              alphanumeric characters and _, -, .,  and  *,  but  not  spaces.   Strings  can  be
              continued between lines.  \", \\, \n, \<NL> are treated as double quote, backslash,
              new line and no symbol respectively.  Comments start with # and extend to  the  end
              of the line.

       Global Settings Section

              global { global settings specification }
                     Used  to  set global dictd setting such as log file, syslog facility, locale
                     and so on.

              EXAMPLE:
                     See examples/dictd4.conf file from the distribution.

       Access Section

              access { access specification }
                     This section contains access restrictions for the  server  and  all  of  the
                     databases  collectively.   Per-database control is specified in the Database
                     Section.

              EXAMPLE:
                     See examples/dictd3.conf file from the distribution.

       Database Section

              database string { database specification }
                     The string specifies the name of the database (e.g., wn or web1913).   (This
                     is  an  arbitrary name selected by the administrator, and is not necessarily
                     related to the file name or any name listed in the data file.  A short, easy
                     to type name is often selected for easy use with dict -d.)

                     EXAMPLE: See examples/dictd*.conf files from the distribution.

                     NOTE:  If  the files specified in the database specification do not exist on
                     the system, dictd may silently fail.

              database_virtual string { virtual database specification }
                     This section specifies the virtual database.  The string specifies the  name
                     of the database (e.g., en-ru or fren).

                     EXAMPLE:   See  examples/dictd_virtual.conf  or  examples/dictd_complex.conf
                     files from the distribution.

              database_plugin string { plugin specification }
                     This section specifies the plugin.  The string specifies  the  name  of  the
                     database.

                     EXAMPLE:  See  examples/dictd_plugin_dbi.conf or examples/dictd_complex.conf
                     files from the distribution.

              database_mime string { mime specification }
                     Traditionally, databases created for dictd contained plain text only because
                     dictd  releases before 1.10.0 didn't have full support of OPTION MIME option
                     (consult with RFC-2229).  This section describes the special database  which
                     behaves  differently  depending  on whether OPTION MIME command was received
                     from client or was not, i.e. the database created by this section allows one
                     to  return  to the client either a plain text or specially formatted content
                     depending on whether DICT client supports (or  wants  to  receive)  MIMEized
                     content or doesn't.  The string specifies the name of the database.

                     NOTE:  All  this  is about DEFINE command only.  MATCH, SHOW DB, SHOW STRAT,
                     SHOW INFO, SHOW SERVER and HELP commands return texts prepended  with  empty
                     line only.

                     EXAMPLE: See examples/dictd_mime.conf file from the distribution.

              database_exit
                     Excludes  following  databases  from the '*' database.  By default '*' means
                     all databases available.  Look  at  'examples/dictd_virtual.conf'  file  for
                     example configuration.

                     NOTE:  If  you  use  'virtual'  dictionaries, you should use this directive,
                     otherwise you will search the same dictionary twice.

              User Section

                     user string string
                            The first string  specifies  the  username,  and  the  second  string
                            specifies the shared secret for this username.  When the AUTH command
                            is used, the client will provide the username and a hashed version of
                            the shared secret.  If the shared secret matches, the user is said to
                            have authenticated, and will have access to  databases  whose  access
                            specifications  allow  that  user  (by  name,  or  by  wildcard).  If
                            present, this section must appear last  in  the  configuration  file.
                            There  may  be  many  user entries.  The shared secret should be kept
                            secret, as anyone  who  has  access  to  it  can  access  the  shared
                            databases (assuming access is not denied by domain name).

              Access Specification
                     Access  specifications  may  occur  in the Access Section or in the Database
                     Section.  The access specification will be described here.

                     For allow, deny, and authonly, a star (*) may be used as a  wild  card  that
                     matches  any  number  of  characters.   A question mark (?) may be used as a
                     wildcard that matches a single character.  For example, 10.0.0.*  and  *.edu
                     are valid strings.

                     Further, a range of IP addresses and an IP address followed by a netmask may
                     be specified.  For example, 10.0.0.0:10.0.0.255, 10.0.0.0/24,  and  10.0.0.*
                     all  specify  the  same range of IP numbers.  Notation cannot be combined on
                     the same line.  If the notation does not make sense, access will  be  denied
                     by default.  Use the --debug auth option to debug related problems.

                     Note  that these specifications take only one string per specification line.
                     However, you can have multiple lines of each type.

                     The syntax is as follows:

                     allow string
                            The string specifies a domain name or IP  address  which  is  allowed
                            access to the server (in the Access Section) or to a database (in the
                            Database Section).  Note that more than one string is  not  permitted
                            for  a  single  "allow"  line,  but  more  than one "allow" lines are
                            permitted in the configuration file.

                     deny string
                            The string specifies a domain name or  IP  address  which  is  denied
                            access to the server (in the Access Section) or to a database (in the
                            Database Section).  Note that if reverse DNS  is  not  working,  then
                            only  the  IP  number will be checked.  Therefore, it is essential to
                            deny networks based on IP number, since a denial based on domain name
                            may not always be checked.

                     authonly string
                            This form is only useful in the Access Section.  The string specifies
                            a domain name or IP address which is allowed access to the server but
                            not  to  any of the databases.  All commands are valid except DEFINE,
                            MATCH, and SHOW DB.  More specifically AUTH is a valid  command,  and
                            commands which access the databases are not allowed.

                     user string
                            This  form  is  only  useful  in  the  Database  Section.  The string
                            specifies a username that is allowed to access this database after  a
                            successful AUTH command is executed.

       Global Settings Specification
              This section describes the following parameters:

              port string_or_number
                     Specifies  the  port  or service name (e.g., 2628).  The default is 2628, as
                     specified in the DICT Protocol RFC, but may be changed in the defs.h file at
                     compile time (DICT_DEFAULT_SERVICE).

              site string
                     Used to specify the filename for the site information file, a flat text file
                     which will be displayed in response to the SHOW SERVER command.

                     EXAMPLE: See examples/dictd4.conf file from the distribution.

              site_no_banner boolean
                     By default SHOW SERVER command outputs information about dictd  version  and
                     an operating system type.  This option disables this.

              site_no_uptime boolean
                     By default SHOW SERVER command outputs information about uptime of dictd , a
                     number of forks since startup and forks  per  hour.   This  option  disables
                     this.

              site_no_dblist boolean
                     By default SHOW SERVER command outputs internal information about databases,
                     such as a number of headwords, index size and so on.  This  option  disables
                     this.

              delay number
                     Specifies  the number of seconds a client may be idle before the server will
                     close the connection.  Idle time is defined to be the  time  the  server  is
                     waiting  for input and does not include the time the server spends searching
                     the database. The default is 0 seconds (no limit), but may be changed in the
                     defs.h file at compile time (DICT_DEFAULT_DELAY).

                     NOTE:  Setting  delay  option  disables  limit_time option. Only one of them
                     (last specified in dictd.conf ) is in effect.

                     NOTE:  Connections  are  closed  without  warning  since  no  provision  for
                     premature connection termination is specified in the DICT protocol RFC.

              depth number
                     Specify  the  queue  length  for listen(2).  Specifies the number of pending
                     socket connections which are queued by the operating system.  Some operating
                     systems  may  silently  limit  this  value  to  5 (older BSD systems) or 128
                     (Linux).  The default is 10 but may be changed in the defs.h file at compile
                     time (DICT_QUEUE_DEPTH).

              limit_childs number
                     Specifies  the  number  of daemons that may be running simultaneously.  Each
                     daemon  services  a  single  connection.   If  the  limit  is  exceeded,   a
                     (serialized)  connection  will be made by the server process, and a response
                     code 420 (server temporarily unavailable) will be sent to the client.   This
                     parameter  should  be  adjusted  to  prevent  the  server machine from being
                     overloaded by dict clients, but should not be set so low that  many  clients
                     are denied useful connections. The default is 100, but may be changed in the
                     defs.h file at compile time (DICT_DAEMON_LIMIT_CHILDS).

              limit number
                     Synonym for limit_childs.  For backward compatibility only.

              limit_matches number
                     Specifies the maximum number of matches that can be returned by MATCH query.
                     Zero means no limit. The default is 2000.

              limit_definitions number
                     Specifies  the  maximum number of definitions that can be returned by DEFINE
                     query. Zero means no limit. The default is 200.

              limit_time number
                     Specifies the number of seconds a client may talk to the server  before  the
                     server  will close the connection.  The default is 600 seconds (10 minutes),
                     but   may   be   changed   in   the   defs.h   file    at    compile    time
                     (DICT_DEFAULT_LIMIT_TIME).

                     NOTE:  Setting  limit_time  option  disables  delay option. Only one of them
                     (last specified in dictd.conf ) is in effect.

                     NOTE:  Connections  are  closed  without  warning  since  no  provision  for
                     premature connection termination is specified in the DICT protocol RFC.

              limit_queries number
                     Specifies  the  number of queries (MATCH, DEFINE, SHOW DB etc.)  that client
                     may send to the server before the server will close  the  connection.   Zero
                     means  no limit.  The default is 2000, but may be changed in the defs.h file
                     at compile time (DICT_DEFAULT_LIMIT_QUERIES).

              timestamp number
                     How often a timestamp should be logged (int minutes).   (This  is  effective
                     only  if  logging  has  been  enabled  with  the  -s or -L option, or with a
                     debugging option.)

              log_option option
                     Specify a logging option.  This  is  effective  only  if  logging  has  been
                     enabled with the -s or -L option or in configuration file, or logging to the
                     console has been activated with a debugging option (e.g., --debug  nodetach.
                     Only  one  option  may  be set with each invocation of this option; however,
                     multiple invocations of this option may be made  in  configuration  file  or
                     dictd command line.  For instance:
                     dictd -s --log stats --log found --log notfound
                     is a valid command line, and sets three logging options.

                     Some  of  the  more verbose logging options are used primarily for debugging
                     the server code, and are not practical for normal use.

                     server Log server diagnostics.  This is extremely verbose.

                     connect
                            Log all connections.

                     stats  Log all children terminations.

                     command
                            Log all commands.  This is extremely verbose.

                     client Log results of CLIENT command.

                     found  Log all words found in the databases.

                     notfound
                            Log all words not found in the databases.

                     timestamp
                            When logging to a file, use a full timestamp like that  which  syslog
                            would  produce.   Otherwise,  no  timestamp is made, making the files
                            shorter.

                     host   Log name of foreign host.

                     auth   Log authentication failures.

                     min    Set a minimal number of options.  If logging is activated (to a file,
                            or  via  syslog),  and  no  options  are set, then the minimal set of
                            options will be used.  If options are set, then  only  those  options
                            specified will be used.

                     all    Set all of the options.

                     none   Clear all of the options.

                     To  facilitate  location of interesting information in the log file, entries
                     are marked with initial letters indicating  the  class  of  the  line  being
                     logged:

                     I      Information about the server, connections, or termination statistics.
                            These lines are generally not designed to be parsed automatically.

                     E      Error messages.

                     C      CLIENT command information.

                     D      Definitions found in the databases searched.

                     M      Matches found in the database searched.

                     N      Matches which were not found in the databases searched.

                     T      Trace of exact line sent by client.

                     A      Authentication information.

                     To preserve anonymity of the client, do not use the connect or host options.
                     Clients  may  or may not send host information using the CLIENT command, but
                     this should be an option that is selectable on the client side.

              debug_option string
                     Activate a debugging option.  There are  several,  all  of  which  are  only
                     useful  to  developers.   They are documented here for completeness.  A list
                     can be obtained interactively by using -d with an illegal option.

                     verbose
                            The same as -v or --verbose.  Adds verbosity to other options.

                     scan   Debug the scanner for the configuration file.

                     parse  Debug the parser for the configuration file.

                     search Debug the character folding and binary search routines.

                     init   Report database initialization.

                     port   Log client-side port number to the log file.

                     lev    Debug Levenshtein search algorithm.

                     auth   Debug the authorization routines.

                     nodetach
                            Do not detach as a background process.  Implies that a  copy  of  the
                            log file will appear on the standard output.

                     nofork Do  not  fork  daemons  to  service  requests.   Be a single-threaded
                            server.  This option implies nodetach, and is most useful for using a
                            debugger  to  find  the  point  at which daemon processes are dumping
                            core.

                     alt    Debugs altcompare in index.c.

              locale string
                     Specifies the locale used for searching.  If no locale is specified, the "C"
                     locale  is  used.  The locale used for the server should be the same as that
                     used for dictfmt when the database was built (specifically, the locale under
                     which  the  index was sorted). The locale should be specified for both 8-bit
                     and UTF-8 formats. If locale contains utf8 or utf-8 substring, UTF-8  format
                     is  expected.   Note that if your database is not in ASCII7 or UTF-8 format,
                     then the dictd server will not be compliant to RFC 2229.

                     NOTE If utf-8 or 8-bit dictionaries are included in the configuration  file,
                     and  the  appropriate  --locale  has  not been specified, dictd will fail to
                     start.  This implies that dictd will not  run  with  both  utf-8  and  8-bit
                     dictionaries in the configuration file.

              add_strategy strategy_name description
                     Adds  strategy  strategy_name  with  the  description description.  This new
                     search  strategy  may  be  implemented  with  a  help  of   plugins.    Both
                     strategy_name and description are strings.

              default_strategy string
                     Set  the  server's  default  search  strategy  for  MATCH  search type.  The
                     compiled-in default is 'lev'.  It is also possible to set  default  strategy
                     per  database.   See  default_strategy  keyword  in  Database  specification
                     section.

              disable_strategy string
                     Disable specified strategies.  By default all implemented search  strategies
                     are  enabled.   It is also possible to disable strategies per database.  See
                     disable_strategy keyword in Database specification section.

              listen_to string
                     Binds socket to the specified address.  If you want to allow connections  to
                     dict server from localhost only, apply
                     listen_to 127.0.0.1

              syslog string
                     Log using the syslog(3) facility.

              syslog_facility string
                     Specifies the syslog facility to use.  The use of this option implies the -s
                     option to turn on logging via syslog.  When the operating  system  libraries
                     support  SYSLOG_NAMES, the names used for this option should be those listed
                     in syslog.conf(5).  Otherwise, the following names are  used  (assuming  the
                     particular  facility  is defined in the header files): auth, authpriv, cron,
                     daemon, ftp, kern, lpr, mail, news,  syslog,  user,  uucp,  local0,  local1,
                     local2, local3, local4, local5, local6, and local7.

              log_file string
                     Specify  the file for logging.  The filename specified is recomputed on each
                     use using the strftime(3) call.  For example, a filename ending in ".%Y%m%d"
                     will  write  to  log  files ending in the year, month, and date that the log
                     entry was written.
                     NOTE: If dictd does not  have  write  permission  for  this  file,  it  will
                     silently fail.

              pid_file string
                     The specified filename will be created to contain the process id of the main
                     dictd process. The default is /var/run/dictd.pid

              fast_start
                     By default, dictd creates (in memory) additional index to  make  the  search
                     faster.  This option disables this behaviour and makes startup faster.

              without_mmap
                     do  not  use the mmap(2) function and read entire files into memory instead.
                     Use this option, if you know exactly what you are doing.

       Database Specification
              The database specification describes the database:

              data string
                     Specifies the filename for the flat text database.  If the filename does not
                     begin  with '.' or '/', it is prepended with $datadir/. It is a compile time
                     option. You can  change  this  behaviour  by  editing  Makefile  or  running
                     ./configure --datadir=...

              index string
                     Specifies  the  filename for the index file.  Path matter is similar to that
                     described above in "data" option .

              index_suffix string
                     This is optional index file to make 'suffix' search strategy faster  (binary
                     search).      It     is    generated    by    'dictfmt_index2suffix'.    Run
                     "dictfmt_index2suffix --help" for more information.  Path matter is  similar
                     to that described above in "data" option .

              index_word string
                     This  is  optional  index file to make 'word' search strategy faster (binary
                     search).  It is generated by 'dictfmt_index2word'.  Run  "dictfmt_index2word
                     --help"  for  more  information.   Path  matter is similar to that described
                     above in "data" option .

              prefilter string
                     Specifies the  prefilter command.  When  a chunk of the compressed  database
                     is   read, it will be filtered  with  this filter before being decompressed.
                     This may be  used to provide  some additional compression  that knows  about
                     the  data and can provide better compression than the LZ77 algorithm used by
                     zlib.

              postfilter string
                     Specifies the postfilter command.  When a chunk of the  compressed  database
                     is  read,  it will be filtered with this filter before the offset and length
                     for the entry are used to access data.  This is provided for  symmetry  with
                     the  prefilter  command,  and  may  also  be useful for providing additional
                     database compression.

              filter string
                     Specifies the filter  command.   After  the  entry  is  extracted  from  the
                     database, it will be filtered with this filter.  This may be used to provide
                     formatting for the entry (e.g., for html).

              name string
                     Specifies the short name of the database (e.g., "1913 Webster's").   If  the
                     string  begins  with  @,  then  it  specifies the headword to look up in the
                     dictionary to  find  the  short  name  of  the  database.   The  default  is
                     "@00-database-short",  but this may be changed in the defs.h file at compile
                     time (DICT_SHORT_ENTRY_NAME).

              info string
                     Specifies the information about database.  If the string begins with @, then
                     it  specifies the headword to look up in the dictionary to find information.
                     The default is "@00-database-info", but this may be changed  in  the  defs.h
                     file at compile time (DICT_INFO_ENTRY_NAME).

              invisible
                     Makes  dictionary  invisible to the clients i.e. this dictionary will not be
                     recognized or shown by DEFINE, MATCH, SHOW INFO, SHOW  SERVER  and  SHOW  DB
                     commands.  If some definitions or matches are found in invisible dictionary,
                     the name of the upper visible virtual dictionary is returned.   Dictionaries
                     '*'  and '!' don't include invisible ones.  NOTE: Invisible dictionaries are
                     completely inaccessible (and  invisible)  to  the  client  unless  they  are
                     included  to  the  virtual  or  MIME  dictionary  (See  database_virtual  or
                     database_mime database sections).

              disable_strategy string
                     Disables the specified strategy for database.  This may be useful  for  slow
                     dictionaries (plugins) or for dictionaries included to virtual ones.  For an
                     example see file examples/dictd_complex.conf.

              default_strategy string
                     Specifies the strategy which will be used if the database is accessed  using
                     the  strategy  '.'.   I.e.  this  directive  is the way to set the preferred
                     search strategy per database. For example, instead of  strategy  lev  ,  the
                     strategy word may be preferred for databases mainly containing the multiword
                     phrases but the single words.

       Virtual Database Specification
              The virtual database specification describes the virtual database:

              database_list string
                     Specifies a list of databases which are included into the virtual  database.
                     Database names are in the string and are separated by comma.

              name string
                     Specifies the short name of the database. See database specification

              info string
                     Specifies the information about database. See database specification

              invisible
                     Makes dictionary invisible to the clients. See database specification

              disable_strategy string
                     Disables the specified strategy for database.  See database specification

       Plugin Specification

              plugin string
                     Specifies a filename of the plugin.

              data string
                     Specifies data for initializing plugin.

              name string
                     Specifies  the  short  name of the database.  See Database Specification for
                     more information.

              info string
                     Specifies the information about database.  See  Database  Specification  for
                     more information.

              invisible
                     Makes  dictionary  invisible to the clients.  See Database Specification for
                     more information.

              disable_strategy string
                     Disables the specified strategy for database.   See  Database  Specification
                     for more information.

              default_strategy string
                     Sets  the  default search strategy for database.  See Database Specification
                     for more information.

       Mime Specification

              dbname_nomime string
                     Specifies the real database name which is used in case OPTION  MIME  command
                     was NOT received from a client.

              dbname_mime string
                     Specifies  the  real database name which is used in case OPTION MIME command
                     WAS received from a client.  A necessary MIME header is set while creating a
                     database.  See dictfmt(1) for option --mime-header.

              name string
                     Specifies  the  short  name of the database.  See Database Specification for
                     more information.

              info string
                     Specifies the information about database.  See  Database  Specification  for
                     more information.

              invisible
                     Makes  dictionary  invisible to the clients.  See Database Specification for
                     more information.

              disable_strategy string
                     Disables the specified strategy for database.   See  Database  Specification
                     for more information.

              default_strategy string
                     Sets  the  default search strategy for database.  See Database Specification
                     for more information.

       include string
              The text of the file "string" (usually a database specification) will be read as if
              it  appeared  at  this location in the configuration file.  Nested includes are not
              permitted.

DETERMINATION OF ACCESS LEVEL

       When a client connects, the global access specification is  scanned,  in  order,  until  a
       specification  matches.   If  no access specification exists, all access is allowed (e.g.,
       the action is the same as if "allow *" was the only item in the specification).  For  each
       item,  both  the  hostname  and IP are checked. For example, consider the following access
       specification:
              allow 10.42.*
              authonly *.edu
              deny *
       With this specification, all clients in the  10.42  network  will  be  allowed  access  to
       unrestricted  databases; all clients from *.edu sites will be allowed to authenticate, but
       will be denied access to all databases, even those which are otherwise  unrestricted;  and
       all  other  clients  will have their connection terminated immediately.  The 10.42 network
       clients can send an AUTH command and gain  access  to  restricted  databases.   The  *.edu
       clients  must  send  an  AUTH  command  to  gain  access  to  any databases, restricted or
       unrestricted.

       When the AUTH command is sent, the access list for each database  is  scanned,  in  order,
       just  as the global access list is scanned.  However, after authentication, the client has
       an associated username.  For example, consider the following access specification:
              user u1
              deny *.com
              user u2
              allow *
       If the client authenticated as u1, then the client will have access to this database, even
       if  the  client  comes from a *.com site.  In contrast, if the client authenticated as u2,
       the client will only have access if it does not come from a *.com site.  In this case, the
       "user u2" is redundant, since that client would also match "allow *".

       Warning:  Checks are performed for domain names and for IP addresses.  However, if reverse
       DNS for a specific site is not working, it is possible that  a  domain  name  may  not  be
       available  for  checking.   Make  sure that all denials use IP addresses.  (And consider a
       future enhancement: if a domain name is not available, should denials  that  depend  on  a
       domain  name  match  anything?   This  is  the  more conservative viewpoint, but it is not
       currently implemented.)

SEARCH ALGORITHMS

       The DICT standard specifies a few search algorithms that must be implemented, and  permits
       others  to  be supported on a server-dependent basis.  The following search strategies are
       supported by this server.  Note that all strategies are  case  insensitive.   Most  ignore
       non-alphanumeric, non-whitespace characters.

       exact  An  exact  match.   This  algorithm  uses a binary search and is one of the fastest
              search algorithms available.

       lev    The Levenshtein algorithm (string edit distance of one).  This  algorithm  searches
              for  all  words  which are within an edit distance of one from the target word.  An
              "edit" means an insertion, deletion, or transposition.  This is a  rapid  algorithm
              for correcting spelling errors, since many spelling errors are within a Levenshtein
              distance of one from the original word.

       prefix Prefix match.  This algorithm also uses a binary search and is very fast.

       nprefix
              Like prefix but returns the specified range of matches. For  example,  when  prefix
              strategy  returns  1000  matches,  you can get only 100 ones skipping the first 800
              matches.  This is made by specified these limits in a query like this: 800#100#app,
              where  800  is  skip count, 100 is a number of matches you want to get and "app" is
              your  query.   This  strategy  allows  one  to  implement  DICT  client  with  fast
              autocompletion  (although  it  is not trivial) just like many standalone dictionary
              programs do.

              NOTE: If you access the dictionary "*" (or virtual one) with nprefix strategy,  the
              same  range  is  set for each database in it, but globally for all matches found in
              all databases.

              NOTE: In case you access non-english dictionary the returned matches  may  be  (and
              mostly will be) NOT ordered in alphabetic order.

       re     POSIX  1003.2  (modern)  regular expression search.  Modern regular expressions are
              the ones used by egrep(1).  These regular expressions  allow  predefined  character
              classes  (e.g.,  [[:alnum:]], [[:alpha:]], [[:digit:]], and [[:xdigit:]] are useful
              for this application); uses * to match a sequence 0 or more matches of the previous
              atom;  uses + to match a sequence of 1 or more matches of the previous atom; uses ?
              to match a sequence of 0 or 1 matches of the previous atom; used  ^  to  match  the
              beginning  of  a  word,  uses  $  to  match  the  end  of a word, and allows nested
              subexpression and alternation with () and |.  For example, "(foo|bar)" matches  all
              words  that contain either "foo" or "bar".  To match these special characters, they
              must be quoted with two backslashes (due to  the  quoting  characteristics  of  the
              server).   Warning: Regular expression matches can take 10 to 300 times longer than
              substring matches.  On a busy server, with many databases, this can  required  more
              than  5  minutes  of  waiting  time,  depending  on  the  complexity of the regular
              expression.

       regexp Old (basic) regular expressions.  These regular expressions don't support |, +,  or
              ?.  Groups use escaped parentheses.  While modern regular expressions are generally
              easier to use, basic regular expressions have a back reference feature.   This  can
              be  used  to  match a second occurrence of something that was already matched.  For
              example, the following expression finds all words that begin and end with the  same
              three letters:
                  ^\\(...\\).*\\1$

              Note  the  use of the double backslashes to escape the special characters.  This is
              required by the DICT protocol string specification (a single backslash  quotes  the
              next  character  --  we  use  two  to get a single backslash through to the regular
              expression engine).  Warning: Note that the use of backtracking is even slower than
              the use of general regular expressions.

       soundex
              The  Soundex algorithm, a classic algorithm for finding words that sound similar to
              each other.  The algorithm encodes each word using the first letter of the word and
              up  to  three  digits.   Since the first letter is known, this search is relatively
              fast, and it sometimes good for correcting spelling  errors  when  the  Levenshtein
              algorithm doesn't help.

       substring
              Match  a  substring anywhere in the headword.  This search strategy uses a modified
              Boyer-Moore-Horspool algorithm.  Since it must search the whole index file,  it  is
              not as fast as the exact and prefix matches.

       suffix Suffix  match.   This  search  strategy  also  uses a modified Boyer-Moore-Horspool
              algorithm, and is as fast as the substring search.  If  the  optional  index_suffix
              string file is listed in the configuration file this search is much faster.

       word   Match  any  single  word,  even  if  part  of  a multi-word entry.  If the optional
              index_word string file is listed in the configuration  file  this  search  strategy
              works much faster.

       first  Match the first word that begins a multi-word entry.

       last   Match  the  last  word  that ends a multi-word entry.  If the optional index_suffix
              string file is listed in the configuration file this  search  strategy  works  much
              faster.

DATABASE FORMAT

       Databases for dictd are distributed separately.  A database consists of two files.  One is
       a flat text file, the other is the index.

       The flat text file contains dictionary entries (or any other suitable data), and the index
       contains  tab-delimited  tuples  consisting of the headword, the byte offset at which this
       entry begins in the flat text file, and the length of the entry in bytes.  The offset  and
       length  are  encoded using base 64 encoding using the 64-character subset of International
       Alphabet IA5 discussed in RFC 1421  (printable  encoding)  and  RFC  1522  (base64  MIME).
       Encoding the offsets in base 64 saves considerable space when compared with the usual base
       10 encoding, while still permitting tab characters (ASCII 9) to  be  used  for  delimiting
       fields  in  a  record.   Each  record ends with a newline (ASCII 10), so the index file is
       human readable.

       Some headwords are used by dictd especially

       00-database-info Contains the information about database which is returned  by  SHOW  INFO
       command, unless it is specified in the configuration file.

       00-database-short  Contains  the  short  name of the database which is returned by SHOW DB
       command, unless it is specified in the configuration file.  See dictfmt -s.

       00-database-url URL where original dictionary sources were obtained from.  See dictfmt -u.
       This headword is not used by dictd

       00-database-utf8 Presents if dictionary is encoded using UTF-8.  See dictfmt --utf8

       00-database-8bit-new  Presents  if  dictionary  is  encoded using 8-BIT character set (not
       ASCII and not UTF8).  See dictfmt --locale.

       The flat text file may be compressed using gzip(1) (not recommended) or dictzip(1) (highly
       recommended).   Optimal  speed  will be obtained using an uncompressed file.  However, the
       gzip compression algorithm works very well on plain text, and can result in space  savings
       typically  between  60  and 80%.  Using a file compressed with gzip(1) is not recommended,
       however, because  random  access  on  the  file  can  only  be  accomplished  by  serially
       decompressing  the whole file, a process which is prohibitively slow.  dictzip(1) uses the
       same compression algorithm and file format as does gzip(1), but provides a table that  can
       be  used  to randomly access compressed blocks in the file.  The use of 50-64kB blocks for
       compression typically degrades compression by less than 10%, while maintaining  acceptable
       random  access  capabilities  for  all  data  in  the  file.   As  an added benefit, files
       compressed  with  dictzip(1)  can  be  decompressed  with  gzip(1)  or  zcat(1).    (Note:
       recompressing  a dictzip'd file using, for example, znew(1) will destroy the random access
       characteristics of the file.  Always compress data files using dictzip(1).)

SIGNALS

       SIGHUP causes dictd to reread configuration file and reinitialize databases.

       SIGUSR1 causes dictd to unload databases. Then dictd returns 420 status (instead of  220).
       To load databases again, send SIGHUP signal. Because database files are mmap'ed(2) , it is
       impossible to update them while dictd is running.  So, if  you  need  to  update  database
       files  and  reread  configuration  file,  first,  send  SIGUSR1  signal to dictd to unload
       databases, update files, and then send SUGHUP signal to load them again.

COPYING

       The main source files for the dictd  server  and  the  dictzip  compression  program  were
       written  by  Rik  Faith  (faith@dict.org)  and  are distributed under the terms of the GNU
       General Public License.  If you need to distribute under other terms, write to the author.

       The main libraries used by these programs (zlib,  regex,  libmaa)  are  distributed  under
       different  terms,  so  you  may  be  able  to use the libraries for applications which are
       incompatible with the GPL -- please see the copyright notices and license information that
       come  with  the  libraries for more information, and consult with your attorney to resolve
       these issues.

BUGS

       The regular expression searches do not ignore non-whitespace, non-alphanumeric  characters
       as do the other searches.  In practice, this isn't much of a problem.

WARNINGS

       Conformance  of  regular  expressions (used by 're' and 'regexp' search strategies) to ERE
       and BRE depends on library you build dictd with.   Whether  're'  and  'regex'  strategies
       support utf8 depends on library you build dictd with.

FILES

       /etc/dictd/dictd.conf
              dictd configuration file

       /usr/sbin/dictd
              dictd daemon itself

       /var/run/dictd.pid
              File for storing pid of dictd daemon

       /usr/share/dictd
              The default directory for dictd databases (.index and .dict[.dz] files)

SEE ALSO

       examples/dictd*.conf, dictfmt(1), dict(1), dictzip(1), gunzip(1), zcat(1), webster(1), RFC
       2229

                                          29 March 2002                                  DICTD(8)