[gentoo-user] is it enchant stable on x86 -- oh, my spell checker, where did it go?

[Michael Higgins]

Claws-mail 
version 3.7.0
Locale: en_US.UTF-8 (charset: UTF-8)

Spell checker could not be started.
Couldn't initialize en dictionary:
(null)
Couldn't initialize en speller.

eix app-dicts/*en

[I] app-dicts/aspell-en
     Available versions:  0.51.0 0.51.1 6.0.0
     Installed versions:  6.0.0(08:11:33 AM 04/15/2008)
     Homepage:            http://aspell.net
     Description:         English (US, British, Canadian) language dictionary for aspell

??? 

Did someone change an ebuild, or profile or something, without an announcement somewhere?

<grumble>
I get the feeling, more and more, that there isn't a rudder, or even common sense. If someone makes changes that, simply put, break systems, shouldn't they make an effort to advertise it beforehand? With a suggested fix?
</grumble>

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=250115

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=250573

And even http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1801

So, maybe I'm not the only one who found a problem. 

eix app-dicts/*en
[I] app-dicts/aspell-en
     Available versions:  0.51.0 0.51.1 6.0.0
     Installed versions:  6.0.0(08:11:33 AM 04/15/2008)
     Homepage:            http://aspell.net
     Description:         English (US, British, Canadian) language dictionary for aspell

equery depends app-dicts/aspell-en
[ Searching for packages depending on app-dicts/aspell-en... ]
app-text/aspell-0.60.5 (!linguas_vi & !linguas_uk & !linguas_sv & !linguas_sr & !linguas_sl & !linguas_sk & !linguas_ru & !linguas_ro & !linguas_pt & !linguas_pl & !linguas_no & !linguas_nl & !linguas_it & !linguas_is & !linguas_hr & !linguas_he & !linguas_gl & !linguas_ga & !linguas_fr & !linguas_fo & !linguas_fi & !linguas_et & !linguas_es & !linguas_eo & !linguas_en & !linguas_el & !linguas_de & !linguas_da & !linguas_cy & !linguas_cs & !linguas_ca & !linguas_br & !linguas_bg & !linguas_be & !linguas_af? app-dicts/aspell-en)
                       (linguas_en? app-dicts/aspell-en)
app-text/enchant-1.4.2 (aspell? virtual/aspell-dict)

[I] app-text/enchant
     Available versions:  1.2.5 1.3.0 1.4.2 {aspell hunspell zemberek}
     Installed versions:  1.4.2(07:07:10 PM 01/25/2009)(hunspell -aspell -zemberek)
     Homepage:            http://www.abisource.com/enchant/
     Description:         Spellchecker wrapping library

So, what is a user supposed to do in this case? It appears that the profile, or something, is defaulted to something other than what it did before (aspell --> hunspell maybe?), but this change maybe wasn't propogated to the user who needs to do something, I suppose. At least, not this user...  where did the change originate? This was updated yesterday, so I assume this really is the culprit.

Anyway, I put it to the list, should this be something we are told about before we have to go searching for the solution to yet another ebuild-related problem? Is there a dev-announce list I should be subscribing to? Why wouldn't those announcements go here, for example? (Ah, the dead horse isn't moving.)

If so, where is/was it? Anyway, it would seem the solution is to change my enchant use flags, or build a different set of dictionaries. Shouldn't there be a post-install check, or something?

alculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild   R   ] app-text/enchant-1.4.2  USE="hunspell -aspell -zemberek" 0 kB

Total: 1 package (1 reinstall), Size of downloads: 0 kB

Would you like to merge these packages? [Yes/No] n

Quitting.

lappy ~ # grep enchant /var/lib/portage/world 

Geez! I was about to pollute world. Hello, WTF????

app-office/abiword-2.6.4 (spell? >=app-text/enchant-1.2)
app-text/gtkspell-2.0.14 (>=app-text/enchant-1.1.6)
mail-client/claws-mail-3.7.0 (spell? >=app-text/enchant-1.0.0)

So, is abiword spellcheck broken too? Yep.

I just rebuild 'enchant', there were no messages that my system would be broken.

[ebuild   R   ] app-office/abiword-2.6.4  USE="gnome spell -debug -xml" 0 kB

So, "spell" enabled. Why not working?

Anyway, I don't know the best route to proceed. It seems like 'aspell' is just orphaned on my system, since it isn't used. I didn't make that choice to orphan it, or break the spellchecking.

Checking again, nowhere is 'aspell' or 'hunspell' specified in my use flags.

Thoughts, anyone? 

Google search causes many hits, no doubt the solution is either to remove 'aspell' and emerge hunspell en dicts, or add 'aspell' use, but since this is a dependency enabled by default somewhere, why doesn't it try to, or prompt to, install a proper dictionary if the default changed by devs?

diff enchant-1.4.2.ebuild /usr/portage/app-text/enchant/enchant-1.4.2.ebuild
1c1
< # Copyright 1999-2008 Gentoo Foundation
---
> # Copyright 1999-2009 Gentoo Foundation
3c3
< # $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/app-text/enchant/enchant-1.4.2.ebuild,v 1.2 2008/07/20 06:04:56 serkan Exp $
---
> # $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/app-text/enchant/enchant-1.4.2.ebuild,v 1.5 2009/01/23 22:37:39 maekke Exp $
14c14
< KEYWORDS="~alpha ~amd64 ~hppa ~ia64 ~ppc ~ppc64 ~sparc ~x86 ~x86-fbsd"
---
> KEYWORDS="~alpha amd64 hppa ~ia64 ~ppc ~ppc64 sparc x86 ~x86-fbsd"
                                                      ^^^

Hmm. I think I found the problem, the cause, the culprit:

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=255691

Well, maybe I'll be the only one to have a problem after all. Indeed, emerging the 'myspell' dictionary (for 'hunspell', apparently) fixes the problems. I'll send this anyway, in case it helps someone else save time. :(

-- 
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 michael.higgins[at]evolone[dot]org