spell(1) UNIX System V(Spell Utilities) spell(1)
NAME
spell, hashmake, spellin, hashcheck, compress - find spelling errors
SYNOPSIS
spell [ -v ] [ -b ] [ -x ] [ -l ] [ +local_file ] [ files ]
/usr/lib/spell/hashmake
/usr/lib/spell/spellin n
/usr/lib/spell/hashcheck spelling_list
/usr/lib/spell/compress
DESCRIPTION
spell collects words from the named files and looks them up in a spelling
list. Words that neither occur among nor are derivable (by applying
certain inflections, prefixes, and/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), and eqn(1) constructions.
-v All words not literally in the spelling list are printed, and
plausible derivations from the words in the spelling list are
indicated.
-b British spelling is checked. Besides preferring centre,
colour,
programme, speciality, travelled, etc., this option insists
upon -ise in words like standardise, Fowler and the OED
(Oxford English Dictionary) to the contrary notwithstanding.
-x Every plausible stem is displayed, one per line, with =
preceding each word.
-l Follow the chains of all included files. 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.
+local_file Words found in local_file are removed from spell's output.
local_file is the name of a user-provided file that contains
a sorted list of words, one per line. The list must be
sorted with the ordering used by sort(1) (e.g. upper case
preceding lower case). If this ordering is not followed,
some entries in local_file may be ignored. With this option,
the user can specify a set of words that are correct
spellings (in addition to spell's own spelling list) for each
job.
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The spelling list is based on many sources, and while more haphazard than
an ordinary dictionary, 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.
Alternate auxiliary files (spelling lists, stop list, history file) may
be specified on the command line by using environment variables. These
variables and their default settings are shown in the FILES section.
Copies of all misspellings and entries that specify the login, tty, and
time of each invocation of spell are accumulated in the history file. The
stop list filters out misspellings (e.g., thier=thy-y+ier) that would
otherwise pass.
Three 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.
This is the first step in creating a new spelling list or
adding words to an existing list; it must be used prior to
using spellin.
spellin Reads n hash codes (created by hashmake) from the standard
input and writes a compressed spelling list on the standard
output. Use spellin to add words to an existing spelling
list or create a new spelling list.
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. It takes as input an existing spelling
list (hlista or hlistb) or a list created or modified by
spellin. By using hashcheck on an existing compressed
spelling_list and hashmake on a file of selected words, you
can compare the two output files to determine if the selected
words are present in the existing spelling_list.
compress When spell is executed, the misspelled words are added to a
file called spellhist. This file may contain identical
entries since the same word may be misspelled during
different executions of spell. The compress program deletes
redundant misspelled words in the spellhist file, thereby
reducing the size of the file, making it easier to analyze.
FILES
DSPELL=/usr/share/lib/spell/hlist[ab] hashed spelling lists,
American & British
SSPELL=/usr/share/lib/spell/hstop hashed stop list
HSPELL=/var/adm/spellhist history file
/usr/lib/spell/spellprog program
SEE ALSO
deroff(1), sed(1), sort(1), tee(1).
eqn(1), tbl(1), troff(1) in the DOCUMENTER'S WORKBENCH Software Technical
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Discussion and Reference Manual.
NOTES
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.
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