1SPELL(1)                    General Commands Manual                   SPELL(1)
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NAME

6       spell, spellin, spellout - find spelling errors
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SYNOPSIS

9       spell [ -v ] [ -b ] [ -x ] [ -d hlist ] [ -s hstop ] [ -h spellhist ] [
10       file ] ...
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12       spellin [ list ]
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14       spellout [ -d ] list
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DESCRIPTION

17       Spell collects words from the named documents, and looks them up  in  a
18       spelling  list.   Words  that neither occur among nor are derivable (by
19       applying certain inflections, prefixes or suffixes) from words  in  the
20       spelling  list  are  printed  on  the standard output.  If no files are
21       named, words are collected from the standard input.
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23       Spell ignores most troff, tbl and eqn(1) constructions.
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25       Under the -v option, all words not literally in the spelling  list  are
26       printed,  and  plausible derivations from spelling list words are indi‐
27       cated.
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29       Under the -b option, British spelling is checked.   Besides  preferring
30       centre,  colour,  speciality, travelled, etc., this option insists upon
31       -ise in words like standardise, Fowler and the OED to the contrary not‐
32       withstanding.
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34       Under  the -x option, every plausible stem is printed with `=' for each
35       word.
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37       The spelling list is based on many sources.  While it is more haphazard
38       than  an  ordinary  dictionary,  it  is also more effective with proper
39       names and popular technical words.  Coverage of the specialized vocabu‐
40       laries of biology, medicine and chemistry is light.
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42       The  auxiliary files used for the spelling list, stop list, and history
43       file may be specified  by  arguments  following  the  -d,  -s,  and  -h
44       options.   The default files are indicated below.  Copies of all output
45       may be accumulated in the history file.  The stop list filters out mis‐
46       spellings (e.g. thier=thy-y+ier) that would otherwise pass.
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48       Two routines help maintain the hash lists used by spell.  Both expect a
49       set of words, one per line, from the standard input.  Spellin  combines
50       the  words  from  the  standard input and the preexisting list file and
51       places a new list on the standard output.  If no list  file  is  speci‐
52       fied,  the  new  list  is created from scratch.  Spellout looks up each
53       word from the standard input and prints on the  standard  output  those
54       that  are  missing from (or present on, with option -d) the hashed list
55       file.  For example, to verify that hookey is not on the default  spell‐
56       ing list, add it to your own private list, and then use it with spell,
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58              echo  hookey  |  spellout  /usr/dict/hlista
59              echo  hookey  |  spellin  /usr/dict/hlista  >  myhlist
60              spell  -d  myhlist  huckfinn
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FILES

63       /usr/dict/hlist[ab] hashed  spelling lists, American & British, default
64       for -d
65       /usr/dict/hstop          hashed stop list, default for -s
66       /dev/null      history file, default for -h
67       /tmp/spell.$$∗      temporary files
68       /usr/libexec/spell
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SEE ALSO

71       deroff(1), sort(1), tee(1), sed(1)
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BUGS

74       The spelling list's coverage is uneven; new installations will probably
75       wish  to  monitor  the  output for several months to gather local addi‐
76       tions.
77       British spelling was done by an American.
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817th Edition                    October 22, 1996                       SPELL(1)
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