V10/cmd/spell/spell.1

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.TH SPELL 1
.CT 1 writing_aids 
.SH NAME
spell \- find spelling errors
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B spell
[
.I option
]
...
[
.I file
]
...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Spell
looks up words from the named
.I files
(standard input default)
in a public spelling list and in a private list.
Possible misspellings (words 
that occur in neither and are not plausibly derivable
from the former) are placed on the standard output.
.PP
.I Spell
ignores constructs of
.IR troff (1)
and its standard preprocessors,
or constructs of
.IR tex (1).
It understands these options:
.TP
.B -b
Check British spelling.
.TP
.B -v
Print all words not literally in the spelling list, with
derivations.
.TP
.B -x
Print on standard error, marked with
.LR = ,
every stem as it is looked up in the spelling list,
along with its affix classes.
Typically used for maintenance.
.TP
.B -c
.br
.ns
.TP
.B -C
Input is one word per line.
Output is a single byte per word, delivered immediately:
.L -
if the word is rejected, 
.L +
if the word is accepted under
.BR -c ,
and a digit if the word is accepted under
.BR -C .
Digit zero indicates a word known directly; larger
numbers indicate words derived by increasingly
elaborate paths.
Typically used by other programs piping queries to spell.
.PP
The private list, by default
.FR $HOME/lib/spelldict ,
is arranged one word per line.
.PP
Pertinent files may be specified by
environment variables, listed below with their default settings.
To help in gathering local vocabularies, copies of all output
are accumulated in the history file, if it exists and is writable.
.PP
As a matter of policy, 
.I spell
does not admit multiple spellings of the same word.
Variants that follow general rules are preferred over
over those that don't, even when the unruly spelling is
more common.
Thus, in American usage, `modeled', `sizable', and `judgement' are
preferred to `modelled', `sizeable', and `judgment'.
Agglutinated variants are shunned: `crew member' and `back yard'
(noun) or `back-yard' (adjective) are preferred to
`crewmember' and  `backyard'.
.SH FILES
.TF /usr/lib/spell/spellhist
.TP
.F /usr/lib/spell/amspell
spelling list, compressed
.RB ( D_SPELL )
.TP
.F /usr/lib/spell/brspell
British spelling list
.TP
.F /usr/lib/spell/spellhist
history file
.RB ( H_SPELL )
.TP
.F $HOME/lib/spelldict
private list
.RB ( A_SPELL )
.TP
.F /usr/lib/spell/sprog
the main routine
.RB ( P_SPELL )
.TP
.BR deroff " (or " delatex )
(or
.FR delatex )
for removing punctuation and 
.IR troff (1)
constructs
.RB ( DEROFF )
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR dict (7),
.IR deroff (1),
.IR wwb (1)
.SH BUGS
Words in a private list are recognized only by
exact match, including capitalization and affixing.
.br
The heuristics of
.IR deroff (1)
and
.IR delatex ,
used to excise formatting information, are imperfect.
.br
The spelling list's coverage is uneven;
in particular biology, medicine, and chemistry, and
perforce proper names,
are covered very lightly.
.br
British spelling was done by an American.