Spec is now v1.0.1.

[userv.git] / spec.html / ch-config.html

diff --git a/spec.html/ch-config.html b/spec.html/ch-config.html
index 794c7d055858baf96b3ae9fd733de32195730b73..cad488439d59c8874798620943f785322cb267cc 100644 (file)
--- a/spec.html/ch-config.html
+++ b/spec.html/ch-config.html
@@ -70,9 +70,9 @@ The configuration file is a series of directives, usually one per
 line.  The portion of a line following a hash character <samp>#</samp> is
 taken as a comment and ignored.  Each directive consists of a series
 of tokens separated by linear whitespace (spaces and tabs); tokens may
-be words consisting of non-space characters (except backslash), or,
-where a string is required, a string in double quotes.  Double-quoted
-strings may contain the following backslash escapes:
+be words consisting of non-space characters, or, where a string is
+required, a string in double quotes.  Double-quoted strings may
+contain the following backslash escapes:
 
 <dl compact>
 <dt><samp>\n</samp><dd>newline
@@ -99,11 +99,6 @@ Pathnames starting with the two characters <samp>~/</samp> are taken to be
 relative to the service user's home directory.
 </p>
 
-<p>
-Logical lines may be continued by putting a backslash <samp>\</samp> at the
-end of a line; this counts as part of linear whitespace.
-</p>
-
 <hr>
 
 <h2>
@@ -161,12 +156,11 @@ to exist, but it is an error if a file exists and cannot be read or if
 the directory cannot be accessed.
 
 A translation will be applied to values before they are used to
-construct a filename, so that the lookup cannot access dotfiles,
-backup files, files in other directories and the like: each slash will
-be replaced with a colon followed by a hyphen <samp>:-</samp>, and all
-characters which are not lowercase alphanumerics, hyphens or
-underscores will have a colon prepended (so that colons are doubled).
-A parameter value which is the empty string will be replaced with
+construct a filename, so that the lookup cannot access dotfiles or
+files in other directories: values starting with full stops will have
+a colon prepended (making <samp>:.</samp>), colons will be doubled, and each
+slash will be replaced with a colon followed by a hyphen <samp>:-</samp>.  A
+parameter value which is the empty string will be replaced with
 <samp>:empty</samp> (note that this is different from a parameter not having
 any values).
 
@@ -180,12 +174,13 @@ file.
 
 <p><dt><samp>error <var>text ...</var></samp><dd>Causes an error whose message includes the descriptive string
 <var>text</var>.  <var>text</var> may consist of several tokens with intervening
-linear whitespace.  Each set of linear whitespace will appear in the
-message as a single space.  The usual meaning of double-quoted strings
+whitespace.  The whitespace will be included in the message as found
+in the configuration file: all the characters until the end of the
+line will be included verbatim, unless they are part of a
+double-quoted string, in which case the usual meaning of the string
 (i.e., after backslash escape processing) will be used.  Comments and
 linear whitespace at the end of the line (or just before the comment)
-will still be ignored.  Apart from those cases, each token's text will
-be included verbatim.
+will still be ignored.
 
 <p><dt><samp>message <var>text ...</var></samp><dd>Causes a message including the descriptive string <var>text</var> to be
 delivered as if it were an error message, but does not actually cause
@@ -591,7 +586,7 @@ quit
 User service daemon and client specification<br>
 
 <address>
-0.64.1<br>
+1.0.1<br>
 Ian Jackson <a href="mailto:ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk">ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk</a>
 </address>