diff --git a/GhcModExe/Find.hs b/GhcModExe/Find.hs
index 8ed9225..3e0a7fd 100644
--- a/GhcModExe/Find.hs
+++ b/GhcModExe/Find.hs
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 {-# LANGUAGE CPP, BangPatterns, TupleSections, DeriveGeneric #-}
 
 module GhcModExe.Find
-#ifndef SPEC
   ( Symbol
   , SymbolDb
   , loadSymbolDb
@@ -14,9 +13,7 @@ module GhcModExe.Find
   , AsyncSymbolDb
   , newAsyncSymbolDb
   , getAsyncSymbolDb
-  )
-#endif
-  where
+  ) where
 
 import qualified GHC as G
 import FastString
diff --git a/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/CabalHelper.hs b/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/CabalHelper.hs
index 1d00a5b..cb09569 100644
--- a/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/CabalHelper.hs
+++ b/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/CabalHelper.hs
@@ -16,15 +16,13 @@
 
 {-# LANGUAGE CPP #-}
 module Language.Haskell.GhcMod.CabalHelper
-#ifndef SPEC
   ( getComponents
   , getGhcMergedPkgOptions
   , getCabalPackageDbStack
   , prepareCabalHelper
   , withAutogen
-  )
-#endif
-  where
+  , withCabal
+  ) where
 
 import Control.Applicative
 import Control.Monad
diff --git a/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cradle.hs b/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cradle.hs
index 87efe81..b4e499b 100644
--- a/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cradle.hs
+++ b/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Cradle.hs
@@ -1,15 +1,14 @@
 {-# LANGUAGE CPP #-}
 module Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Cradle
-#ifndef SPEC
-  (
-    findCradle
+  ( findCradle
   , findCradle'
   , findCradleNoLog
   , findSpecCradle
   , cleanupCradle
-  )
-#endif
-  where
+
+  -- * for @spec@
+  , plainCradle
+  ) where
 
 import Language.Haskell.GhcMod.PathsAndFiles
 import Language.Haskell.GhcMod.Monad.Types
diff --git a/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Utils.hs b/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Utils.hs
index 5de4ca3..c923750 100644
--- a/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Utils.hs
+++ b/core/Language/Haskell/GhcMod/Utils.hs
@@ -79,17 +79,18 @@ whenM mb ma = mb >>= flip when ma
 -- | Returns the path to the currently running ghc-mod executable. With ghc<7.6
 -- this is a guess but >=7.6 uses 'getExecutablePath'.
 ghcModExecutable :: IO FilePath
-#ifndef SPEC
 ghcModExecutable = do
-    dir <- takeDirectory <$> getExecutablePath'
-    return $ (if dir == "." then "" else dir) </> "ghc-mod"
-#else
-ghcModExecutable = do
-  gpp <- lookupEnv "STACK_EXE"
-  case gpp of
-    Just _ -> fmap (</> "ghc-mod") getBinDir
-    _      -> fmap (</> "dist/build/ghc-mod/ghc-mod") getCurrentDirectory
-#endif
+    exe <- getExecutablePath'
+    stack <- lookupEnv "STACK_EXE"
+    case takeBaseName exe of
+      "spec" | Just _ <- stack ->
+          (</> "ghc-mod") <$> getBinDir
+      "spec" ->
+          (</> "dist/build/ghc-mod/ghc-mod") <$> getCurrentDirectory
+      "ghc-mod" ->
+          return exe
+      _ ->
+          return $ takeDirectory exe </> "ghc-mod"
 
 getExecutablePath' :: IO FilePath
 #if __GLASGOW_HASKELL__ >= 706
diff --git a/ghc-mod.cabal b/ghc-mod.cabal
index 1ca4893..bf630df 100644
--- a/ghc-mod.cabal
+++ b/ghc-mod.cabal
@@ -274,7 +274,6 @@ Test-Suite spec
   Main-Is:              Main.hs
   Hs-Source-Dirs:       test, ., src, core
   Ghc-Options:          -Wall -fno-warn-deprecations -threaded
-  CPP-Options:          -DSPEC=1
   Type:                 exitcode-stdio-1.0
   Other-Modules:        Paths_ghc_mod
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