System Directories

In this documentation we will repeatedly refer to three different directories that Gaia Sky uses to store data and configuration settings: $GS_DATA, $GS_CONFIG and the dataset location, $data.

The locations of $GS_DATA and $GS_CONFIG depend on the operating system:

• Linux – as of version 2.2.0, the Linux release of Gaia Sky uses the XDG base directory specification.

  • $GS_DATA = ~/.local/share/gaiasky/

  • $GS_CONFIG = ~/.config/gaiasky/

• Windows and macOS – in these systems, .gaiasky directory in the user home directory for both locations, so:

  • $GS_DATA = $GS_CONFIG = [User.Home]/.gaiasky/

  • [User.Home] on Windows is typically in C:\Users\[username].

  • [User.Home] on macOS is typically in /Users/[username].

Dataset location

By default, Gaia Sky stores the downloaded datasets in the $GS_DATA/data directory. The location where the datasets are saved is referred to as $data. The actual location of $data is stored in the configuration file (key data::location) and can be changed in the dataset manager window at startup.

• $data = $GS_DATA/data