SPELL(1)
NAME
spell, spellin, spellout − find spelling errors
USAGE
spell [ −v ] [ −b ] [ −x ] [ −d hlist ] [ −s hstop ] [ −h spellhist ] [ file ] ...
spellin [ list ]
spellout [ −d ] list
DESCRIPTION
Spell collects words from the named documents, and looks them up in a spelling list. It prints, on the standard output, words that neither occur among nor are derivable (by applying certain inflections, prefixes, or suffixes) from words in the spelling list. If you do not name any files to be examined, spell collects words from the standard input.
Spell ignores most troff (1), tbl (1), and eqn (1) constructions.
The spelling list is based on many sources. While it is more haphazard than an ordinary dictionary, it is also more effective with proper names and popular technical words. Coverage of the specialized vocabularies of biology, medicine, and chemistry is light.
The history file accumulates copies of all output. The stop list filters out misspellings (e.g., thier=thy−y+ier) that would otherwise pass.
Two routines help maintain the hash lists used by spell. Both expect a set of words, one per line, from the standard input. Spellin combines the words from the standard input and the pre-existing list file and places a new list on the standard output. If you specify no list file, spellin creates the new list from scratch.
Spellout looks up each word from the standard input and prints on the standard output those that are missing from (or present on, with option −d) the hashed list file.
OPTIONS
−v Print all words not literally in the spelling list, and indicate plausible derivations from spelling list words.
−b Check British spelling. Besides preferring centre, colour, speciality, and travelled, this option insists upon -ise in words such as standardise.
−x Print every plausible stem with an equal sign (=) for each word.
−d hlist Specify hlist as the history file to be used instead of the default /usr/dict/hlist[ab] file.
−s hstop Specify hstop as the stop list to be used instead of the default /usr/dict/hstop file.
−h spellhist Specify spellhist as the history file to be used instead of the default /dev/null file.
EXAMPLE
To verify that hookey is not on the default spelling list, add it to your own private list, and then use it with spell: echo hookey | spellout /usr/dict/hlista
echo hookey | spellin /usr/dict/hlista >
spell −d myhlist huckfinn
CAUTIONS
The spelling list’s coverage is uneven. New installations may want to monitor the output for several months to gather local additions.
FILES
/usr/dict/hlist[ab] hashed spelling lists, American and British; the default for −d
/usr/dict/hstop hashed stop list, the default for −s
/dev/null history file, the default for −h
/tmp/spell.$$∗ temporary files
/usr/lib/spell