spell(1)
Name
spell, spellin, spellout − check text for spelling errors
Syntax
spell [−v] [−b] [−x] [−d hlist] [+local-file] [−s hstop] [−h spellhist] [file...]
spellin [list]
spellout [−d] list
Description
The spell command collects words from the named documents, and looks them up in a spelling list. Words that are not on the spelling list and are not derivable from words on the list (by applying certain inflections, prefixes or suffixes) are printed on the standard output. If no files are specified, words are collected from the standard input.
The spell command ignores most troff, tbl and eqn constructions.
Two routines help maintain the hash lists used by spell. Both expect a set of words, one per line, from the standard input. The spellin command 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, a new list is generated. The spellout command 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 <filename>
Options
−vDisplays words not found in spelling list with all plausible derivations from spelling list.
−bChecks data according to British spelling. Besides preferring centre, colour, speciality, travelled, this option insists upon −ise instead of −ize in words like standardise.
−xPrecedes each word with an equal sign (=) and displays all plausible derivations.
−d hlistSpecifies the file used for the spelling list.
−h spellhistSpecifies the file used as the history file.
−s hstopSpecifies the file used for the stop list.
+local-fileRemoves words found in local-file from the output of the spell command. The argument local-file is the name of a file provided by the user that contains a sorted list of words, one per line. With this option, the user can specify a list of words for a particular job that are spelled correctly.
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 (for example, thier=thy−y+ier) that would otherwise pass.
Restrictions
The coverage of the spelling list is uneven; new installations will probably wish to monitor the output for several months to gather local additions.
The spell command works only with ASCII text files.
Files
/usr/dict/hlist[ab]hashed spelling lists, American & British, default for −d
/usr/dict/hstophashed stop list, default for −s
/dev/nullhistory file, default for −h
/tmp/spell.$$∗temporary files
/usr/lib/spell