1 

     2 local function dict (args)

     3     if not args then return nil, "Give me a word, please" end

     4     -- Be careful as we pass it as an argument to a shell command

     5     local word = string.match(args, "^(%w+)[%s%?%.%!]*$")

     6     if not word then return nil, "Can you repeat please?" end

     7 

     8     local cmd = "/usr/bin/dict "..word.." 2> /dev/null"

     9     local fh = io.popen(cmd)

    10     result = fh:read("*a")  -- read dict output

    11     fh:close()

    12     if result:match("^$") then return nil, "dict: No output" end

    13 

    14     -- Sometimes dict outpur is ugly... Let's filter out whitespace.

    15     result = result:gsub("[ \t]+\n", "\n"):gsub("\n\n\n+", "\n\n")

    16     -- Trim trailing newlines

    17     return result:gsub("\n+$", "")

    18 end

    19 

    20 mcbot_register_command("dict", dict)