NAME
spell —
find spelling errors
SYNOPSIS
spell |
[-biltvx]
[-d list]
[-h
spellhist]
[-m a |
e | l |
m | s]
[-s stop]
[+extra_list]
[file ...] |
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(1),
tbl(1),
eqn(1), and
pic(1) constructions. Copies of all
output may be accumulated in the history file, if one is specified.
By default,
spell (like
deroff(1)) follows chains of
included files (“.so” and “.nx” commands)).
The default spelling list is based on Webster's Second International dictionary
and should be fairly complete. Words that appear in the “stop
list” are immediately flagged as misspellings, regardless of whether or
not they exist in one of the word lists. This helps filter out misspellings
(e.g. thier=thy-y+ier) that would otherwise pass. Additionally, the
british file is also used as a stop list unless the
-b option is specified.
Site administrators may add words to the local word list,
/usr/local/share/dict/words or the local stop list,
/usr/local/share/dict/stop.
All word (and stop) lists must be sorted in lexicographical order with case
folded. The simplest way to achieve this is to use “sort -df”. If
the word files are incorrectly sorted,
spell will not be
able to operate correctly.
The options are as follows:
-
-
- -b
- Check British spelling. Besides preferring
centre, colour,
speciality, travelled, etc., this
option insists upon -ise in words like
standardise, Fowler and the OED to the contrary
notwithstanding. In this mode, American variants of words are added to the
stop list.
-
-
- -d
word_list
- Use the specified word list instead of the default system
word list. The word list must be sorted as specified above.
-
-
- -h
spellhist
- Store misspelled words in the specified history file. The
output of
who -m
is appended to the history file
after the list of misspelled words.
-
-
- -i
- Instruct
deroff(1) to ignore
“.so” and “.nx” commands.
-
-
- -l
- Use delatex instead of
deroff(1) if it is present
on the system.
-
-
- -m
- Enable support for common
troff(1) macro packages; this
option is passed verbatim to
deroff(1). Refer to the
--m description in
deroff(1) for details.
-
-
- -s
stop_list
- Use the specified stop list instead of the default system
stop list. The stop list must be sorted as specified above.
-
-
- -t
- Use detex instead of
deroff(1) if it is present
on the system.
-
-
- -v
- Print all words not literally in the spelling list in
addition to plausible derivations from spelling list words.
-
-
- -x
- Print every plausible stem, prefixed with
‘=’.
-
-
- +extra_list
- Use extra_list in addition to the
default word list. The extra word list must be sorted as specified
above.
FILES
- /usr/share/dict/words
- Default spelling list
- /usr/share/dict/american
- American spelling of certain words
- /usr/share/dict/british
- British spelling of certain words
- /usr/share/dict/stop
- Default stop list.
- /usr/local/share/dict/words
- Local spelling list (optional)
- /usr/local/share/dict/stop
- Local stop list (optional)
- /usr/libexec/spellprog
- Binary executed by the shell script
/usr/bin/spell.
SEE ALSO
deroff(1),
look(1),
sed(1),
sort(1),
tee(1),
troff(1)
HISTORY
The
spell command appeared in
Version 6
AT&T UNIX.
Unlike historic versions, the
NetBSD
spell command does not use hashed word files. Instead, it
uses lexicographically sorted files and the same technique as
look(1).
BUGS
The spelling list lacks many technical terms; new installations will probably
wish to monitor the output for several months to gather local additions.
British spelling was done by an American.
In
-x mode it would be nicer if the stems were grouped with
the appropriate word.