# About Configuration Directory and File Conventions

Amaya uses a number of default directories to store configuration information.

## The config Directory

Amaya stores most of the default values and all of the dialog messages in the config directory. This directory's parent is the one in which Amaya was installed (the default is `Amaya/config` on Unix; see the table below for the location on Windows).

## The AmayaHome Directory

Amaya stores the user preferences and other user configuration files in a directory called AmayaHome. An existing directory could be selected by the user using the system environment variable `AMAYA_USER_HOME`. Otherwise Amaya selects a default position.

The following table shows the default position of this directory in different architectures:

Architecture | AmayaHome Directory Location
Unix | `$HOME/.amaya`
Windows 95/ Windows 98 | `AMAYA-INSTALL-DIR\users\username` or, if the user didn't login to Windows, `AMAYA-INSTALL-DIR\users\default`
Windows NT/XP | `$HOMEDRIVE\$HOMEPATH\amaya` by default c:\Documents and Settings\$user_name\amaya

This directory is preserved even when installing new versions of Amaya. It may contain the following files:

- thot.rc: Contains the user preferences, changed through the Preferences submenus on the Edit menu.

- amaya.keyboard (Unix) or amaya.kb (Windows): Defines Amaya keyboard shortcuts.

- amaya.css: Contains the user's style sheet.

- dictionary.DCT: Amaya provides a multilingual spell checker. By default, the spell checker works with two dictionaries: English and French (you can download these dictionaries from the W3C servers). When you want to register a new word, the spell checker creates or updates your personal dictionary.

Note:
The `amaya.keyboard`, `amaya.kb`, and `amaya.css` files are loaded at launch time. If you change them, you must quit and restart Amaya to take the changes into account.

## The AmayaTemp Directory

Amaya stores all the temporary files it creates in a directory called the AmayaTemp directory. The following table shows where this directory is stored within different architectures:

Architecture | AmayaTemp Directory
Unix | `$HOME/.amaya`
Windows 9x | `c:\temp\amaya` (default value)
Window XP | $HOMEDRIVE\$HOMEPATH\Local Settings\Temp\amaya by default c:\Documents and Settings\$user_name\Local Settings\Temp\amaya

Amaya creates files in this directory when browsing remote documents or printing a document. The cache is also stored in this directory. You can change the AmayaTemp and cache directories by using the General and Cache preferences (choose Preferences>General or Preferences>Cache from the Edit menu).

Amaya always tries to delete the temporary files it creates. However, if Amaya crashes, the temporary files are not deleted. This will not impact subsequent executions of Amaya.