SPELL(1) (Spell Utilities) SPELL(1)
NAME
spell, hashmake, spellin, hashcheck - 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
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.
Under the -v option, all words not literally in the spelling
list are printed, and plausible derivations from the words
in the spelling list are indicated.
Under the -b option, 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 to the contrary
notwithstanding.
Under the -x option, every plausible stem is printed with =
for each word.
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. Under the
-l option, spell will follow the chains of all included
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SPELL(1) (Spell Utilities) SPELL(1)
files.
Under the +local_file option, 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. 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.
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.
Pertinent auxiliary files may be specified by name
arguments, indicated below with their default settings (see
FILES). Copies of all output 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.
spellin Reads n hash codes from the standard input and
writes a compressed spelling list on the
standard output.
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.
FILES
D_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/hlist[ab] hashed spelling lists,
American & British
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SPELL(1) (Spell Utilities) SPELL(1)
S_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/hstop hashed stop list
H_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/spellhist history file
/usr/lib/spell/spellprog program
SEE ALSO
deroff(1), sed(1), sort(1), tee(1).
BUGS
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.
With continued use, the history file will grow unchecked.
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