Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
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 apply-
     ing 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  dic-
     tionary  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, bspell will not be able to operate cor-
     rectly.

     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 notwithstand-
	     ing.  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  output
	     of  who  -m  is appended to the history file after the list of mis-
	     spelled words.

     -i      Instruct deroff(1) to ignore ".so" and ".nx" commands.

     -l      Use delatex instead of deroff(1) if it is present on the system.

     -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  ap-
     pear  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 proba-
     bly  wish	to  monitor  the output for several months to gather local addi-
     tions.

     British spelling was done by an American.

     In -x mode it would be nicer if the stems were grouped with the appropriate
     word.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	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+15.1.quarterly>

home | help