5.3. - Steps For Installing spec
To install spec on your computer, be sure you have the software development tools available. spec's requirements include the make utility, a compatible C compiler, and compatible runtime libraries for linking.
Before installing spec for the first time, you need to make several decisions:
Decide who will own the files. Most sites create a special user account, usually with the name specadm, that has a home directory used to hold the spec distribution files and is the user account assigned to own the installed spec files. Having a special specadm account allows you or other users to configure and edit spec files without invoking super-user powers, thus lowering the risk of making catastrophic errors.
Decide where to put the distribution. The distribution files are what come directly from CSS, usually as a tar file sent via internet. (In olden times, the files were on a floppy disk, a magnetic tape or a CD-ROM.) These distribution files need to be extracted into a distribution directory that serves as a "staging" area for the installation. The files needed while running spec will be copied elsewhere during installation, so the distribution directory need not be always accessible to the spec users. However, it is usually advised to keep the distribution files available for reference. You will likely receive updated distributions from time to time, and it is a good idea to keep each distribution in a separate directory. The usual choice is to put the distribution in the specadm home directory in a subdirectory named after the spec version number, such as
Decide where the installed files will go. Two directories are needed for the installed files. One is a directory for the executable programs. Most sites choose /usr/local/bin. This directory needs to be in each spec user's search path. The second directory is for spec's auxiliary files. The usual choice is /usr/local/lib/spec.d.
Once these decisions are made and you have created a spec administrator user account (if used) and the directories mentioned above (if needed), you are ready to perform the installation. In brief, to install spec you:
In addition to the information presented below, be sure to consult any README files in the spec distribution directories for up-to-date information on installation procedures.
- 5.3.1. - Extracting the Distribution
5.3.2. - Installing the spec Program Files
5.3.3. - Selecting the Hardware Configuration
5.3.4. - Adding Site-Dependent Help Files
5.3.5. - Adding Site-Dependent C Code