# BACKUP FILES FOLDER SETTING

This setting controls where AyaNova stores backup and restore files used by the backup and restore features built into AyaNova.

Warning: this folder MUST NOT be the same location set for [AYANOVA_FOLDER_USER_FILES](ops-config-folder-user-files.md) or [AYANOVA_FOLDER_TEMPORARY_SERVER_FILES](ops-config-folder-temporary-files.md) or AyaNova will not start.

## Default

If no override is specified AyaNova will store backup files in a `backupfiles` folder in the AyaNova root folder where AyaNova is started from.

## Overriding

AyaNova expects the backup files folder path to be provided by an environment variable or command line parameter named

`AYANOVA_FOLDER_BACKUP_FILES`

The value specified should be a string containing a fully qualified file path for the platform, for example:
`c:\data\ayanova\backupfiles`

Example command line parameter

`dotnet run --AYANOVA_FOLDER_BACKUP_FILES="/var/lib/ayanova/backupfiles"`

Example environment variable

Windows

`set "AYANOVA_FOLDER_BACKUP_FILES=c:\data\ayanova\backupfiles"`

Linux / MAC

`export AYANOVA_FOLDER_BACKUP_FILES="/var/lib/ayanova/backupfiles"`

If both a command line parameter and an environment variable are set the command line parameter takes precedence.
