spell(1)
NAME
spell, spellin, spellout − check text for spelling errors
SYNTAX
spell [−v] [−b] [−x] [−d hlist] [−s hstop] [−h spellhist] [file...]
spellin [list]
spellout [−d] list
DESCRIPTION
The spell command 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.
The spell command ignores most troff, tbl and eqn constructions.
Two routines help maintain the hash lists used by spell. Both expect a set of words, one per line, from the standard input. The spellin command combines 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. The spellout command 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
OPTIONS
−vDisplays words not found in spelling list with all plausible derivations from spelling list.
−bChecks data according to British spelling. Besides preferring centre, colour, speciality, travelled, and so forth, this option insists upon -ise in words like standardise, Fowler and the OED to the contrary notwithstanding.
−xPrecedes each word with = and displays all plausible derivations.
−d hlist
Specifies file used as history file.
−h spellhist
Specifies file used for spelling list.
−s hstop
Specifies file used for stop list.
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 (for example, thier=thy−y+ier) that would otherwise pass.
RESTRICTIONS
The spelling list’s coverage is uneven; new installations will probably wish to monitor the output for several months to gather local additions.
British spelling was done by an American.
The spell command works only with ASCII text files.
FILES
/usr/dict/hlist[ab]hashed spelling lists, American & British, default for −d
/usr/dict/hstophashed stop list, default for −s
/dev/nullhistory file, default for −h
/tmp/spell.$$∗temporary files
/usr/lib/spell