spell(1)                                                 spell(1)



NAME
     spell, hashmake, spellin, hashcheck - find spelling errors

SYNOPSIS
     spell [-v] [-b] [-x] [-l] [+local-file] [file]...

     hashmake

     spellin n

     hashcheck spelling-list

ARGUMENTS
     +local-file
          Specifies the name of a user-provided file that
          contains a sorted list of words, one per line.  With
          this option, the user can specify a set of words that
          are correct spellings (in addition to the spelling list
          included in spell) for each job.  Under the +local-file
          option, words found in local-file are removed from the
          output of spell.

     -b   Checks the British spelling.  In addition to preferring
          centre, colour, programme, speciality, travelled, and
          so on, this option insists upon -ise in words like
          standardise.

     file Specifies the user-specified file that is to be
          searched for spelling errors.

     -l   Causes the spell command to follow the chains of all
          included files.

     n    Specifies the number of hash codes to be read by the
          spellin routine.

     spelling-list
          Specifies the compressed spelling list that is read by
          the hashcheck routine.

     -v   Causes all words not literally in the spelling list to
          be printed.  Plausible derivations from the words in
          the spelling list are indicated.

     -x   Prints every plausible stem with = for each word.

DESCRIPTION
     spell collects words from each named file and locates them
     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 file is named, words are collected



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spell(1)                                                 spell(1)



     from the standard input.

     By default, spell, like deroff(1), follows chains of
     included files (.so and .nx troff(1) requests), unless the
     names of such included files begin with /usr/lib.

     The spell command ignores most troff(1), tbl(1), and eqn(1)
     constructions.

     Three hashmake, spellin, and hashcheck routines help
     maintain and check the hash lists used by spell.

     hashmake reads a list of words from the standard input and
     writes the corresponding nine-digit hash code on the
     standard output.

     spellin reads hash codes from the standard input and writes
     a compressed spelling list on the standard output.
     Information about the hash coding is printed on standard
     error.  The compressed spelling list from the spellin output
     is in binary format and should be generally redirected into
     a file or a pipe.

     hashcheck reads a compressed spelling list and recreates the
     nine-digit hash codes for all the words in it; it writes
     these codes on the standard output.  The spelling list is
     based on many sources, and while more haphazard than an
     ordinary dictionary, it is also more effective with respect
     to proper names and popular technical words.  Coverage of
     the specialized vocabularies of biology, medicine, and
     chemistry is light.

     Pertinent auxiliary files may be specified by name
     arguments, indicated below with their default settings and
     listed in the section ``FILES.''  Copies of all output are
     accumulated in the history file.  The stop list filters out
     misspellings (for example, thier=thy-y+ier) that would
     otherwise pass.

EXAMPLES
     Entering:

        spell filea fileb filec > mistakes

     would put a list of the words from filea, fileb, and filec
     that were not part of the on-line dictionary into the file
     mistakes.

     The following example creates the hashed spelling list hlist
     and checks the result by comparing the two temporary files;
     they should be equal.




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spell(1)                                                 spell(1)



        cat wds | /usr/lib/spell/hashmake | sort -u >tmp1
        cat tmp1 | /usr/lib/spell/spellin `cat tmp1 | wc -l` >hlist
        cat hlist | /usr/lib/spell/hashcheck >tmp2
        diff tmp1 tmp2


LIMITATIONS
     The spelling list's coverage is uneven; new installations
     will probably wish to monitor the output for several months
     to gather local additions.  Typically, these are kept in a
     separate local file that is added to the hashed
     spelling-list via spellin.

     The British spellings are incomplete.

FILES
     /bin/spell
          Executable file
     /usr/lib/spell
          Executable file
     /usr/lib/spell/spellin
          Executable file
     /usr/lib/spell/hashcheck
          Executable file
     /usr/lib/spell/hashmake
          Executable file
     D_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/hlist[ab]
          Executable file
     S_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/hstop
          Executable file
     H_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/spellhist
          Spell history file
     /usr/lib/spell/spellprog
          Executable file
     /usr/lib/spell/compress
          Executable file

SEE ALSO
     diction(1), deroff(1), eqn(1), sed(1), sort(1), style(1),
     tbl(1), tee(1), troff(1)















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