Hi I am getting old and I get confused. Here is the thing (a followup to the "wild" ASDF module question). I am writing something that will have, at run time, a variable * the-directory-where-stuff-is*. Now, I want to initialize this variable automagically, with no "outside" references. I thought I could do something like (defvar the-directory-where-stuff-is* (merge-pathnames (make-pathname :directory '(:relative "stuff") :name nil :type nil) (make-pathname :name nil :type nil :defaults *load-pathname*))) Alas, ASDF and other things may move the compiled file to a cache folder, which, in the end misaligns *load-pathname* w.r.t. where "stuff" actually is (and should be). This is something that build systems like cmake achieve with the notion of "source", "install", etc folders. Any ideas, suggestions, incantations, workarounds, even at the ASDF level to get this done? Thanks -- Marco Antoniotti