# Defining per-user writable directories?
**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/defining-per-user-writable-directories/13205
**Category:** The Garage
**Created:** [December 28, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/defining-per-user-writable-directories/13205 "2016-12-28T19:58:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Altreus](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Altreus)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/defining-per-user-writable-directories/13205/1 "2016-12-28T19:58:49Z")
Hello. I’m looking for advice on using cataclysm with multiple users on a Debian system.
I can put my cdda binary in /usr/local/games but the game relies on a data directory, and presumably creates the save directory, the graveyard, config, etc.
I don’t want to copy the base game data for every user; but the game appears to look in $PWD for the stuff. How can I configure it so that it looks in a known root-owned place for the shared data, but a user-configurable place (perhaps set by an environment variable?) for the data the game will create for any user that runs it?
It seems like the current style is to use $HOME/.config/appname/ to store such data, so if I have to set it at compile time I’d like to use that - but since that uses an environment variable I might as well just use a cataclysm-specific one.
As an aside, does cataclysm already use environment variables? Is there a list?
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### Author:  [@kevin.granade](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kevin.granade)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/defining-per-user-writable-directories/13205/2 "2016-12-28T21:21:12Z")
Try passing cataclysm the --help flag for a full list of arguments, but what you’re looking for is probably some co.bination of --datadir, --configdir and --savedir
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### Author:  [@Altreus](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Altreus)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/defining-per-user-writable-directories/13205/3 "2016-12-28T23:54:17Z")
That’s exactly what I needed, thanks!
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### Author:  [@kevin.granade](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kevin.granade)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2018, 7:55pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/defining-per-user-writable-directories/13205/4 "2018-01-07T19:55:57Z")