script to fetch dictionary.com meanings - Linuxers

17 Nov 2001


      If someone really intends running this script on some
of her documents, please tar-gzip all the
dictionary.com meanings and send it to me.  I don't
have a good Net connection.  If your tarball is bigger
than 80kb, upload it somewhere and send me the link.
Tnx.
Manish Jethani
-------- getdict.sh --------
#!/bin/bash
########################################################################
# Script to fetch meanings of all words appearing in one or more files
# of type "English text".  Meanings are fetched from dictionary.com and
# stored in HTML files of the same name as the word.  The /meaning/
# files are stored in the $SPOOL_DIR (or whatever you want to call it).
#
# Words are picked up from files whose names you pass as command line
# arguments.  If a file is not an "English text" type file, it is
# ignored.
#
# Dependencies:
#   file - for determining file type.
#   egrep - for doing pattern match on word.
#   wget - for fetching the meanings of words from dictionary.com.
#
# Before running, set $SPOOL_DIR and $WGET_LOGFILE.  You can set
# $WGET_LOGFILE to /dev/stdout to get output on console.
#
# e.g. ./getdict.sh ~/mbox
#
# Disclaimer:  I'm not responsible if your computer crashes because of
# this program.  In fact, I'm very irresponsible, by nature.  And I
# don't know how to write shell scripts.
#
# License:  Feel free to modify and distribute this script without my
# permission.  Just don't tell anyone that I wrote the original version.
#
# Bugs:  I've just tested this on my home box (called 'moose') that runs
# RedHat Linux 6.2.  No bugs.  :)  Find and fix yourself.
#
# Copyleft (:P) 2001 Manish Jethani.  All Rights Reversed.
########################################################################
# directory where /meaning/ files will be stored
SPOOL_DIR=`pwd`/spool
# append logfile for wget
WGET_LOGFILE=`pwd`/wget.log
# all files in $@
for file in $@; do
    # if $file is of type "English text"
    if file -bn $file | egrep -sq '^English text$'; then
        # each word in the $file
        for word in `cat $file`; do
            # if $word is alphanumeric
            if echo -n $word | egrep -sq '^[A-Za-z0-9]+$'; then
                meaning_file=$SPOOL_DIR/$word.html
                # if $meaning_file does not exist for $word
                if [ ! -f $meaning_file ]; then
                    # create $meaning_file for $word
                    echo -n "Fetching meaning of "$word" ... "
                    wget -O$meaning_file -a$WGET_LOGFILE \
                        "http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=$word" \
                        && echo "Done." \
                        || rm -f $meaning_file && echo "FAILED!"
                else
                    echo "Meaning of "$word" already there."
                fi
            fi
        done
    else
        echo "Skipping $file - not an English text file."
    fi
done