Checking for misspelling in the mail editor

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The spell command checks the spelling in your message.

Before checking a message for misspellings, make sure the following conditions are true:

  1. The mail program must be installed on your system.
  2. The text-formatting programs must be installed on your system.

Use the spell command to check your message for misspelled words, from the mail editor:

  1. Write the message to a temporary file. For example, to write the message to the checkit file, type: 
    ~w checkit
  2. Run the spell command using the temporary file as input. Type: 
    ~! spell checkit

    In this example, the exclamation point (!) is the subcommand that starts a shell, runs a command, and returns to the mailbox. The spell command responds with a list of words that are not in its list of known words, followed by an exclamation point (!) to indicate that you have returned to the mail program.

  3. Examine the list of words. Determine if you need to use an editor to make corrections.
  4. Type the following to delete the temporary file: 
    ~! rm checkit