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BSPELL(1)		    General Commands Manual		     BSPELL(1)

NAME
       bspell -- find spelling errors

SYNOPSIS
       bspell  [-biltvx]  [-d  list]  [-h  spellhist]  [-m  a |	e | l |	m | s]
	      [-s list]	[+extra_list] [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
       bspell 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.
       bspell ignores most troff, tbl, eqn, and	pic constructions.  Copies  of
       all output may be accumulated in	the history file, if one is specified.

       By  default,  bspell  (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.  Ad-
       ditionally, 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, bspell 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 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 out-
	       put 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 sys-
	       tem.

       -m      Enable support for common troff macro packages; this option  is
	       passed  verbatim	 to deroff(1).	Refer to the -m	description in
	       deroff(1) for details.

       -s 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/local/share/dict/words    Default spelling list.
       /usr/local/share/dict/american
				      American spelling	of certain words.
       /usr/local/share/dict/british  British spelling of certain words.
       /usr/local/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/bspell.

SEE ALSO
       deroff(1), look(1), sed(1), sort(1), tee(1)

HISTORY
       The  bspell  command first appeared in Version 5	AT&T UNIX.  It did not
       appear in freely	redistributable	BSD releases  for  licensing  reasons.
       After  Caldera  relicensed  early  UNIX releases	the 4.4BSD version was
       added to	OpenBSD	3.1 and	later to FreeBSD 14.

       Unlike historic versions, the  FreeBSD  bspell  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	appro-
       priate word.

FreeBSD	ports 15.0	       February	25 2023			     BSPELL(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bspell&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.0>

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