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.