| SPELL(1) | General Commands Manual | SPELL(1) |
spell —
spell |
[-biltvx] [-d
list] [-h
spellhist] [-m
a | e |
l | m |
s] [-s
stop] [+extra_list]
[file ...] |
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-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-h
spellhistwho -m is appended to the history file after the
list of misspelled words.-i-ldelatex instead of
deroff(1) if it is present
on the system.-m--m description in
deroff(1) for details.-s
stop_list-tdetex instead of
deroff(1) if it is present
on the system.-v-xspell 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).
British spelling was done by an American.
In -x mode it would be nicer if the stems
were grouped with the appropriate word.
| April 18, 1994 | NetBSD 9.2 |