4.3BSD - /usr/man/cat1/spell.0

SPELL(1)                                                              SPELL(1)


NAME
       spell, spellin, spellout - find spelling errors

SYNOPSIS
       spell [ -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 indi‐
       cated.

       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 vocabu‐
       laries 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 mis‐
       spellings (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  speci‐
       fied,  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,

              echo  hookey  |  spellout  /usr/dict/hlista
              echo  hookey  |  spellin  /usr/dict/hlista  >  myhlist
              spell  -d  myhlist  huckfinn

FILES
       /usr/dict/hlist[ab] hashed spelling lists, American & British,  default
       for -d
       /usr/dict/hstop          hashed stop list, default for -s
       /dev/null      history file, default for -h
       /tmp/spell.$$∗      temporary files
       /usr/lib/spell

SEE ALSO
       deroff(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  addi‐
       tions.
       British spelling was done by an American.


7th Edition                     April 29, 1985                        SPELL(1)