EDICT-GREP(1)

📦 version 2025.11.06, in debian trixie, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 edict-grep — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, so you found edict-grep(1), a User Commands page, and honestly? it's giving "tiny tool, big dictionary energy". let's get into it. 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

edict-grep — search EDICT files with specific queries

like, it greps, but for EDICT. the name literally ate and left no crumbs. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

edict-grep [options] <query>...

so: options first, then as many queries as your little heart desires. that order is not a suggestion, it's the law (more on that in NOTES, and yes, i'm being dramatic, but also correct). 🙈

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

the edict-grep command is used to search the EDICT file(s) for specific queries based on various options.

that's it. that's the whole vibe. you point it at an EDICT file, you give it queries, it goes and finds matching entries. lowkey iconic. ✨

👑 OPTIONS 👑

okay this is the part where i need you to pay attention, bestie, because there are two -c flags in here and that is not a typo on my part. that is just how it is. i don't make the rules, i just write them down faithfully. 🫶

  • -c — match only common entries.
  • -w — word match; each English query must match whole words only.
  • -e — exact match; each query must match an entire EDICT field.
  • -s — make English queries case-sensitive (the default is insensitive, so chill by default).
  • -f EDICT_FILE — path to the EDICT file (default: /usr/share/edict/edict). heads up though: this program assumes EDICT is in the original EUC-JP encoding. no cap.
  • -c — current terminal character encoding (default: UTF-8).
  • -h — show this message.
bestie. yes. -c really does show up twice with two completely different meanings. i'm not merging them, i'm not "fixing" them, i'm reporting them exactly as written. 💀

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

if you use multiple queries, it's like an AND search — everything you list has to show up. for example:

$ edict-grep cold war

this will match all entries mentioning both cold and war. both. not either. both. AND energy only. 🔥

to search for an exact sentence, use shell escaping:

$ edict-grep 'cold war'

(and consider -e.) 👀

💜 NOTES 💜

be sure to put the queries only AFTER all options!

seriously. options first. queries after. i know you want to be spontaneous and put a query in the middle of your flags, but this is not that kind of party. ✋

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

written by Ludovic Drolez <ldrolez@debian.org> 💖

and that's the whole page, babe. edict-grep — Version 1.0, August 2024. mwah. go grep something. 🎀✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from