spell(1) [bsd man page]
SPELL(1) General Commands Manual SPELL(1) NAME
spell, spellin, spellout - find spelling errors SYNOPSIS
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. Words that neither occur among nor are derivable (by applying certain inflections, prefixes or suffixes) from words in the spelling list are printed on the standard output. If no files are named, words are collected from the standard input. Spell ignores most troff, tbl and eqn(1) constructions. Under the -v option, all words not literally in the spelling list are printed, and plausible derivations from spelling list words are indi- cated. Under the -b option, British spelling is checked. Besides preferring centre, colour, speciality, travelled, etc., this option insists upon -ise in words like standardise, Fowler and the OED to the contrary notwithstanding. Under the -x option, every plausible stem is printed with `=' for each word. 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 auxiliary files used for the spelling list, stop list, and history file may be specified by arguments following the -d, -s, and -h options. The default files are indicated below. Copies of all output may be accumulated in the history file. 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 com- bines the words from the standard input and the preexisting list file and places a new list on the standard output. If no list file is specified, the new list is created 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. For 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 > myhlist spell -d myhlist huckfinn FILES
/usr/dict/hlist[ab] hashed spelling lists, American & British, default for -d /usr/dict/hstop hashed stop list, default for -s /dev/null history file, default for -h /tmp/spell.$$* temporary files /usr/libexec/spell SEE ALSO
deroff(1), sort(1), tee(1), sed(1) BUGS
The spelling list's coverage is uneven; new installations will probably wish to monitor the output for several months to gather local addi- tions. British spelling was done by an American. 7th Edition October 22, 1996 SPELL(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
SPELL(1) BSD General Commands Manual SPELL(1) NAME
spell -- find spelling errors SYNOPSIS
spell [-biltvx] [-d list] [-h spellhist] [-m a | e | l | m | s] [-s stop] [+extra_list] [file ...] DESCRIPTION
spell collects words from the named documents and looks them up in a spelling list. Words that neither occur among nor are derivable (by applying certain inflections, prefixes or suffixes) from words in the spelling list are printed on the standard output. If no files are named, words are collected from the standard input. spell ignores most troff(1), tbl(1), eqn(1), and pic(1) constructions. Copies of all output may be accumulated in the history file, if one is specified. By default, spell (like deroff(1)) follows chains of included files (``.so'' and ``.nx'' commands)). The default spelling list is based on Webster's Second International dictionary and should be fairly complete. Words that appear in the ``stop list'' are immediately flagged as misspellings, regardless of whether or not they exist in one of the word lists. This helps filter out misspellings (e.g. thier=thy-y+ier) that would otherwise pass. Additionally, the british file is also used as a stop list unless the -b option is specified. Site administrators may add words to the local word list, /usr/local/share/dict/words or the local stop list, /usr/local/share/dict/stop. All word (and stop) lists must be sorted in lexicographical order with case folded. The simplest way to achieve this is to use ``sort -df''. If the word files are incorrectly sorted, spell will not be able to operate correctly. The options are as follows: -b Check British spelling. Besides preferring centre, colour, speciality, travelled, etc., this option insists upon -ise in words like standardise, Fowler and the OED to the contrary notwithstanding. In this mode, American variants of words are added to the stop list. -d word_list Use the specified word list instead of the default system word list. The word list must be sorted as specified above. -h spellhist Store misspelled words in the specified history file. The output of who -m is appended to the history file after the list of mis- spelled words. -i Instruct deroff(1) to ignore ``.so'' and ``.nx'' commands. -l Use delatex instead of deroff(1) if it is present on the system. -m Enable support for common troff(1) macro packages; this option is passed verbatim to deroff(1). Refer to the --m description in deroff(1) for details. -s stop_list Use the specified stop list instead of the default system stop list. The stop list must be sorted as specified above. -t Use detex instead of deroff(1) if it is present on the system. -v Print all words not literally in the spelling list in addition to plausible derivations from spelling list words. -x Print every plausible stem, prefixed with '='. +extra_list Use extra_list in addition to the default word list. The extra word list must be sorted as specified above. FILES
/usr/share/dict/words Default spelling list /usr/share/dict/american American spelling of certain words /usr/share/dict/british British spelling of certain words /usr/share/dict/stop Default stop list. /usr/local/share/dict/words Local spelling list (optional) /usr/local/share/dict/stop Local stop list (optional) /usr/libexec/spellprog Binary executed by the shell script /usr/bin/spell. SEE ALSO
deroff(1), look(1), sed(1), sort(1), tee(1), troff(1) HISTORY
The spell command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. Unlike historic versions, the NetBSD spell command does not use hashed word files. Instead, it uses lexicographically sorted files and the same technique as look(1). BUGS
The spelling list lacks many technical terms; new installations will probably wish to monitor the output for several months to gather local additions. British spelling was done by an American. In -x mode it would be nicer if the stems were grouped with the appropriate word. BSD
April 18, 1994 BSD