SPELL(1) User Commands SPELL(1)
NAME
spell, hashmake, spellin, hashcheck - report spelling errors
SYNOPSIS
spell [
-bilvx] [+
local_file] [
file] ...
/usr/lib/spell/hashmake /usr/lib/spell/spellin n /usr/lib/spell/hashcheck spelling_listDESCRIPTION
The
spell command 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, or suffixes)
from words in the spelling list are written to the standard output.
If there are no
file arguments, words to check are collected from the
standard input.
spell ignores most
troff(1),
tbl(1), and
eqn(1) constructs. Copies of all output words are accumulated in the history
file (
spellhist), and a
stop list filters out misspellings (for
example,
their=thy-y+ier) that would otherwise pass.
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.
The standard spelling list is based on many sources, and while more
haphazard than an ordinary dictionary, is also more effective in
respect to proper names and popular technical words. Coverage of the
specialized vocabularies of biology, medicine and chemistry is light.
Three programs 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.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-b Check British spelling. Besides preferring
centre,
colour,
programme,
speciality,
travelled, and so
forth, this option insists upon
-ise in words like
standardise.
-i Cause
deroff(1) to ignore
.so and
.nx commands. If
deroff(1) is not present on the system, then this
option is ignored.
-l Follow the chains of
all included files.
-v Print all words not literally in the spelling list, as
well as plausible derivations from the words in the
spelling list.
-x Print every plausible stem, one per line, with
= preceding each word.
+local_file Specify a set of words that are correct spellings (in
addition to
spell's own spelling list) for each job.
local_file is the name of a user-provided file that
contains a sorted list of words, one per line. Words
found in
local_file are removed from
spell's output.
Use
sort(1) to order
local_file in ASCII collating
sequence. If this ordering is not followed, some
entries in
local_file might be ignored.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
file A path name of a text file to check for spelling errors. If
no files are named, words are collected from the standard
input.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See
environ(7) for descriptions of the following environment
variables that affect the execution of
spell:
LC_CTYPE,
LC_MESSAGES,
and
NLSPATH.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
FILES
D_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/hlist[ab] hashed spelling lists, American & British
S_SPELL=/usr/lib/spell/hstop hashed stop list
H_SPELL=/var/adm/spellhist history file
/usr/share/lib/dict/words master dictionary
SEE ALSO
deroff(1),
eqn(1),
sort(1),
tbl(1),
troff(1),
attributes(7),
environ(7)NOTES
spell works only on English words defined in the U.S.
ASCII codeset.
Because copies of all output are accumulated in the
spellhist file,
spellhist might grow quite large and require purging.
BUGS
The spelling list's coverage is uneven. New installations might wish
to monitor the output for several months to gather local additions.
British spelling was done by an American.
September 15, 2011 SPELL(1)
