spec

Software for Diffraction

5.4. - Updating spec



spec updates are normally extracted into a directory named after the spec version number, as in /usr/specadm/spec6.05.03 for version 6.05.03 of the software. The instructions above for extracting the distribution and installing the files also apply to updates.

Existing settings and config files from a previous installation will not be disturbed during an update. Each user's state file will also remain intact, although it is recommended that users either start out fresh (by typing fourc -f) or run the macro command newmac after new versions are installed to incorporate improvements to the standard macros in their state files. Occasionally, new versions will not be compatible with previous state files, and spec will automatically throw out the old state files, print a message and start fresh anyway. Use the tidy_spec utility to clean out old state files to free up disk space, especially if the old state files are obsolete with the newer version of spec.

The help file changes will contain summaries of the significant bug fixes and improvements to spec included in the update.