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Checking Spelling

Unix
commands

Checking spelling

 

The spell command filters through a file looking for things that look like words, and spits out those which don't appear in the computers dictionary file. Examples:

  • spell myfile   displays all the possible misspellings from the file `myfile'
  • spell myfile > errors   writes all the possible misspellings from the file `myfile' to a file named `errors'

The look command displays all the words in the computer's built-in dictionary which begin with the given letters. Examples:

  • look aque   prints out `aqueduct' and `aqueous'
  • look persi   prints out `Persia', `Persian', `persiflage', `persimmon', `persist', `persistent'
Together, these commands eliminate the need to burden text editors with a built-in spellchecker. You can find which words are misspelled by using spell, and you can find proper spellings using look.

look

spell