  (abridged) We describe the automated spectral classification, redshift
determination, and parameter measurement pipeline in use for the Baryon
Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III
(SDSS-III) as of Data Release 9, encompassing 831,000 moderate-resolution
optical spectra. We give a review of the algorithms employed, and describe the
changes to the pipeline that have been implemented for BOSS relative to
previous SDSS-I/II versions, including new sets of stellar, galaxy, and quasar
redshift templates. For the color-selected CMASS sample of massive galaxies at
redshift 0.4 <~ z <~ 0.8 targeted by BOSS for the purposes of large-scale
cosmological measurements, the pipeline achieves an automated classification
success rate of 98.7% and confirms 95.4% of unique CMASS targets as galaxies
(with the balance being mostly M stars). Based on visual inspections of a
subset of BOSS galaxies, we find that ~0.2% of confidently reported CMASS
sample classifications and redshifts are incorrect, and ~0.4% of all CMASS
spectra are objects unclassified by the current algorithm which are potentially
recoverable. The BOSS pipeline confirms that ~51.5% of the quasar targets have
quasar spectra, with the balance mainly consisting of stars. Statistical (as
opposed to systematic) redshift errors propagated from photon noise are
typically a few tens of km/s for both galaxies and quasars, with a significant
tail to a few hundreds of km/s for quasars. We test the accuracy of these
statistical redshift error estimates using repeat observations, finding them
underestimated by a factor of 1.19 to 1.34 for galaxies, and by a factor of 2
for quasars. We assess the impact of sky-subtraction quality, S/N, and other
factors on galaxy redshift success. Finally, we document known issues, and
describe directions of ongoing development.
