Path Specifiers

Aegisub uses a simple system for denoting file locations. Most pathnames in Aegisub can be written starting with special variables that each refer to specific locations. Note that path specifiers should always have a trailing slash unless they are the entire path (i.e. ?scripta doesn’t work).

?data

The location where application data are stored. On Windows this is the installation directory (the location of the .exe). On Mac OS X this is inside the application bundle. On other POSIX-like systems this is $prefix/share/aegisub/.

?user

The location for user data files, such as configuration files, automatic back-ups and some additional things. On Windows this %APPDATA%\Aegisub\, on Mac OS X this is $HOME/Library/Application Support/Aegisub/ and on other POSIX-like systems this is $HOME/.aegisub/. In portable mode this is changed to ?data.

?temp

The system temp directory. Audio cache and any required temporary subtitle files are stored here.

?local

The local user settings directory. Cache files which should be persisted across runs, such as FFMS2 indexes and the fontconfig cache are stored here. %LOCALAPPDATA%\Aegisub on recent versions of Windows, and equal to ?user everywhere else.

?script

Only defined if a subtitles file is open and saved somewhere, in which case it points to the directory the script is in.

?video

Only defined if a video file is loaded. Points to the directory the video file in is. Do note that this is not a good place to save things with dummy video loaded.

?audio

Only defined if an audio file is loaded. Points to the directory the audio file in is. Do note that this is not a good place to save things with dummy audio loaded.