SPELL(1)SPELL(1)NAME
spell, spellin, spellout - find spelling errors
SYNOPSISspell [ -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
indicated.
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 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. 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,
Page 1
SPELL(1)SPELL(1)
echo hookey | spellout /usr/share/lib/spell/hlista
echo hookey | spellin /usr/share/lib/spell/hlista > myhlist
spell-d myhlist huckfinn
FILES
/usr/share/lib/spell/hlista hashed American spelling list, default for
-d
/usr/share/lib/spell/hlistb hashed British spelling list, default for
-d
/usr/share/lib/spell/hstop hashed stop list, default for -s
/usr/share/lib/dict/words the dictionary
/dev/null history file, default for -h
/tmp/spell.$$* temporary files
/usr/lib/spell
SEE ALSOderoff(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 additions.
British spelling was done by an American.
Page 2
