spec - Local Sector 7 web page

In some installations, spec is installed as a set-user-id root process, to allow certaincalls that allow privileged access to hardware device registers. The first thing specdoes on start up is to set the effective user and group ids to that of the real user, sothere is no danger of the user spawning subshells or creating files as root. The rooteffective id is only used for the duration of the calls that enable the privileged access.spec then performs other initialization tasks, including obtaining values for its internalvariables DISPLAY , GTERM , TERM , HOME and PAGER from variables of the samename in the process environment. It also obtains the value of the SHELL environmentvariable for use with the unix() function.spec then reads the hardware configuration from the appropriate config file from theauxiliary file directory. The path name of that file is SPECD/spec/config, whereSPECD is the auxiliary file directory, established when spec is installed (or by the invocation flag, or by the SPECD environment variable), and spec is the name bywhich spec is invoked.The first time a user starts spec, uptoseven macro files are automatically read. Thepath names of these files areSPECD/standard.macSPECD/geom.macSPECD/spec/geom.macSPECD/site_f.macSPECD/site.macSPECD/spec/conf.mac./spec.macwhere SPECD is the auxiliary file directory, asdescribed above, geom matches thefirst four letters of the name by which spec was invoked and spec is the completename by which spec was invoked. The files are only read if they exist. The filesSPECD/standard.mac, SPECD/geom.mac, SPECD/spec/geom.mac andSPECD/site_f.mac are only read if the user is starting spec for the first time or has¡invoked spec with the (fresh start) flag.Each time spec starts up, if a macro named begin_mac is defined, that macro will berun after reading any startup command files, but before input is read from the keyboard.After reading the start-up macro or command files and possibly running begin_mac ,spec prompts the user for commands.INTERIM WORK-IN-PROGRESS (8/16/01) NOT FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION REFERENCE MANUAL 53