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spell, hashmake, spellin, hashcheck - report spelling errors
spell [ -blvx ] [ -d hlist ] [ -h spellhist ] [ -s hstop ] [
+local_file ] [ filename ] ...
/usr/lib/spell/hashmake
/usr/lib/spell/spellin n
/usr/lib/spell/hashcheck spelling_list
spell collects words from the named files, and looks them up
in a hashed spelling list. Words that do not appear in the
list, or cannot be derived from those that do appear by
applying certain inflections, prefixes or suffixes, are
displayed on the standard output.
If there are no filename 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, 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.
If a +local_file argument is specified, words found in
local_file are removed from spell's output. local_file is
the name of a user-provided file that contains a sorted list
of words, one per line. With this option, the user can
specify a set of words that are correct spellings (in addition
to spell's own spelling list) for each job.
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.
- -b
- Check British spelling. Besides preferring
"centre", "colour", "programme", "speciality",
"travelled", and so on, this option insists upon
-ise in words like standardize, despite what
Fowler and the OED say.
- -l
- Follow the chains of all included files.
- -v
- Print all words not literally in the spelling
list, as well as plausible derivations from
spelling list words.
- -x
- Print every plausible stem with `=' for each
word.
- -d hlist
- Use the file hlist as the hashed spelling list.
- -h spellhist
-
Place misspelled words with a user/date stamp in
file spellhist.
- -s hstop
- Use hstop as the hashed stop list.
/usr/lib/spell/hlist[ab]
hashed spelling lists, American & British
/usr/lib/spell/hstop
hashed stop list
/usr/lib/spell/spellhist
history file
/usr/lib/spell/spellprog
program called by the /usr/bin/spell
shell script
deroff(1), sed(1V), sort(1V), tee(1)
The spelling list's coverage is uneven; new installations
may wish to monitor the output for several months to gather
local additions.
British spelling was done by an American.
Misspelled words can be monitored by default by setting the
H_SPELL variable in /usr/bin/spell to the name of a file
that has permission mode 666.
spell works only on English words defined in the US ASCII
codeset.
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