Nixpkgs: util-linux `look` searches for `/usr/share/dict/words` which does not exist

Created on 27 Jun 2016 · 6Comments · Source: NixOS/nixpkgs

Issue description

The look program should look up words in the system dictionary, which either should be present at /usr/share/dict/words or another location.

Steps to reproduce

$ look help
look: /usr/share/dict/words: No such file or directory
zsh: exit 1     look help

Technical details

System:

$ nixos-version
16.03.909.f199be0 (Emu)

Nix version:

$ nix-env --version
nix-env (Nix) 1.11.2

Nixpkgs version:

$ nix-instantiate --eval '' -A lib.nixpkgsVersion
"16.03.909.f199be0"

$ nix-instantiate --eval ~/Development/nixpkgs -A lib.nixpkgsVersion
"16.09pre-git"

stale

Source

vrthra

👍1

Most helpful comment

It doesn't look like any package is specifically providing it. Maybe we should package the words package as described in the Arch User Repository ( https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/community.git/tree/trunk/PKGBUILD?h=packages/words ) and add it as a dependency on util-linux

ryantm on 24 Feb 2017

👍2

All 6 comments

Is there any package providing the words file?

rnhmjoj on 13 Jul 2016

👍1

Not sure if a package in Nix provides it. In ubuntu, it is provided thus

vrthra on 13 Jul 2016

ryantm on 24 Feb 2017

👍2

I might take a swing at packaging words but this would also require patching util-linux to make look use the dictionaries from the package. Not sure if I know how that would be done.

nixy on 31 Aug 2017

It looks like nixpkgs.scowl provides this list for us. But, I don't think we want to put it in everyone's closure. Instead, I think we can make a NixOS module using the WORDLIST env var

matthewbauer on 23 Sep 2019

Thank you for your contributions.
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