Paths and Directories

By default, FS-UAE creates a number of directories in Documents/FS-UAE to store the files used by FS-UAE: CD-ROMs, Configurations, Controllers, Flash Memory, Floppies, Floppy Overlays, Hard Drives, Kickstarts, Logs, Save States.

In addition, if you use FS-UAE Launcher, it will create a directory of its own: Documents/FS-UAE/Launcher. The following directories can be used by FS-UAE and/or the Launcher if found in Documents/FS-UAE: Covers, Screenshots, Titles, Themes.

See “Specifying Paths in Configuration Files” in Configuration Files instead if you are looking for information about the different ways of referring to directories and files in FS-UAE.

Base Directory

By default, FS-UAE creates its directories under Documents/FS-UAE. For Linux users: If your Documents directory is not configured according to the XDG user dir spec, ~/FS-UAE will be used as a fallback.

You can override this by putting the path to the desired base directory in a special config file. The config file will be read by both FS-UAE and FS-UAE Launcher if it exists:

  • Windows: <LOCALAPPDATA>/fs-uae/base-dir
  • OS X: ~/Library/Preferences/fs-uae/base-dir
  • Linux/other: ~/.config/fs-uae/base-dir

Alternatively, you can starting FS-UAE and/or FS-UAE Launcher with --base-dir=/path/to/desired/dir

Media Directories

The following directories are created as default locations to hold your Amiga media:

  • CD-ROMs
  • Floppies
  • Hard Drives

The location and names of these directories can be overridden with the following options in config files: cdroms_dir, floppies_dir, hard_drives_dir.

You do not have to store your Amiga files here, but when media are located in one of these directories (or a sub-directory), you can refer to contained files without using full paths. For example a floppy image file called Lotus2.adf stored in the Floppies directory can be inserted into the first floppy drive with this option:

floppy_drive_0 = Lotus2.adf

If the file is located outside the Floppies directory, you must instead use an absolute path or one of the other ways to specify paths.

Covers, Screenshots and Titles for FS-UAE Launcher

See the FS-UAE Launcher page for information about the structure of the following directories:

  • Covers (front covers of game boxes)
  • Screenshots
  • Titles (Screenshot of the game title screen)

 WHDLoad Directory

The WHDLoad directory has a special purpose when the WHDLoad feature of FS-UAE Launcher is used. This is explained further in the WHDLoad feature documentation.

Note: This directory is no longer used with recent development versions (2.1.16+). FS-UAE Launcher automatically assembles the WHDLoad directory by itself.

38 thoughts on “Paths and Directories”

  1. Hi Frode, where are the default configurations for games used in the FS-UAE Launcher/FS-UAE Arcade stored? I can find where the custom configurations are stored, but not the prescribed configurations. Cheers, Alex

    Reply ↓

    • Hi, can you give a specific example for what kind of configuration your are looking for?

      Reply ↓

    • If you are thinking of entries from the online game database, these are stories in a database (FS-UAE/Cache/oagd.net.sqlite in the latest dev versions), and they do not use the same .fs-uae configuration file format at all. Instead, .fs-uae configuration files are created on demand when the games are started based on information from the game database.

      Reply ↓

  2. Hi Frode,

    First of all I wanted to say you have done some AMAZING work with fs-uae. I love the simplicity of the launcher and how is connected to the game database. I have been used to winuae for many years, but this is something else 🙂
    Anyway, I wanted to ask you something about the paths and making fs-uae portable.
    I have looked quite a lot so far and tried many things, but without success.

    So, I downloaded the portable version with the launcher (for windows), and wanted to set it up so that I can copy everything to a portable HD or another PC without messing up the paths.
    I noticed that the only way I could hook up the database with my floppy collection and kickstarts is to add paths in the launcher (scan files and configurations) and start the scan. This works great,, but as soon as I move my directory nothing works anymore as kickstarts or adf files are no longer found.

    I have tried entering kickstarts_dir or floppies dir in various config files, but when I start the launcher it doesn’t seem to recognise my kickstarts or floppies.
    Could you tell me if there is a specific config file and command that the launcher will read so that I can tell it where to look for floppies and kickstarts?

    One more thing about my setup: I have floppies and kickstarts in a directory above of the main fs-uae launcher dir, so that I can share files between winuae and fs-uae
    I hope this is the right place to post this.

    thanks!

    Dario.

    Reply ↓

    • Hi, thanks for kind words.

      With regards to the portable version and paths, it works like this:
      – When files are found *within* the portable directory (directly within, or in subdirs), information about the files are stored in the internal database with relative paths (relative to the portable directory).
      – Files outside the portable directory are stored with full paths.

      So in order to be able to move the the floppy / ROM files around (incl. moving the external drive to another computer where the drive letter / mount path will be different), the files must be stored inside the portable directory.

      Reply ↓

      • Thanks for the reply, that works perfectly now.
        Do you think in the future you will allow for a way of having relative paths of files external to the main fs-uae dir? Could be useful for sharing a large file set between various emulators, or even between different versions of fs-uae for testing new releases.

        One last thing, is it possible to download the full images database in one go (without the need for selecting each game) so I can see all the images of games I have not selected yet if I am not online?

        thanks

        Dario.

        Reply ↓

        • It might be possible in the future. But it would need a configuration setting, as it isn’t really possible to guess if the user want to move the file hierarchy outside the FS-UAE dir together with the emulator (=want relative), or if he want to be able to move the FS-UAE installation without moving the outside files (=want absolute).

          Regarding images (yes, it is possible), see http://oagd.net/download 🙂

          Reply ↓

          • Yes, I was thinking something along the lines of how winuae tackles it, i.e. to specify the paths in its main config file, such as:
            “..\Shared\Floppies”

            Thanks for the download link for the images 🙂

    • Hi, when you save configurations, they are stored in Documents/FS-UAE/Configurations. Right now, the only way to remove them is to delete the .fs-uae files manually via a file manager (and restart the launcher).

      Reply ↓

  4. I sende mensage to your facebook Frode. I need help with emulator. Some games don´t iniciate. And i have them zipped , can start with diferrent way but list don´t work. Say for i download and put in other folder. I already puted in that folder but no work.

    Reply ↓

    • Hi, I haven’t received any Facebook message. If you have problems, please report them either here or on on eab.abime.net. Also, I will also need more specific/detailed information as well as log files in order to help you.

      Reply ↓

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  7. in steps 2 , no more dashes are used so just write : make install prefix=your_dir OR make install DESTDIR=your_dir ( caps required )

    enjoy.
    Many thanks for your hard work.

    Reply ↓

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  10. Hey, if you’d like to install this software in $HOME from sources (starting from root of sources tarball):

    1 – make
    2 – make install prefix=$HOME/.local
    3 – cd launcher
    4 – python setup.py install --user

    All binaries will be found in $HOME/.local/bin directory. Required packages were: sdl-mixer, sdl-image, smpeg, pygame.

    Thanks for this software, really great 🙂

    Reply ↓

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