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When spell checking in Emacs, I am accustomed to using M-xispell to invoke the spell checker. I have read that some people have their Emacs configured so this invokes aspell rather than ispell (or hunspell, possibly).

How can I tell whether I'm invoking ispell or aspell?

I looked in my .emacs file (in my home directory) and don't see anything referencing either.

Also, (assuming I am using ispell), where is the "private dictionary" saved where I insert words into. I'd like to back up that file (and/or transfer it to another machine).

Bleeding Fingers
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Madeleine P. Vincent
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1 Answers1

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The value of ispell-program-name tells you what is being used.

M-:ispell-program-name

ispell.el states:

(defconst ispell-pdict-keyword "Local IspellPersDict: "
  "The keyword for defining buffer local dictionaries.
Keyword must be followed by the filename of a personal dictionary.
The last occurring definition in the buffer will be used.")
....
;; Change IspellPersDict to IspellPersDict: to enable the following line.
;; Local IspellPersDict ~/.ispell_lisp
Bleeding Fingers
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  • I don't seem to have the ispell-program-name function. Using Emacs 23.3. – Madeleine P. Vincent Jan 13 '14 at 11:15
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    ispell package might not be loaded the first time... at least this is what it seemed like as first time i tried to look up that variable, nothing showed up. Opened that ispell.el.gz, found `ispell-program-name`, hit `C-h v` and searched for that variable and it showed up this time around. – nymo Jan 13 '14 at 16:39
  • For what it's worth, I was able to use the function `ispell-check-version` – Madeleine P. Vincent Jan 14 '14 at 15:26