Although A-Shell itself can exist in any directories, for system administration purposes is may be wise to try to separate it from other application and operating system directories, if possible. This is less of an issue under Windows, where you typically have only one file system (or partition) available, and thus the best separation you can achieve is to give A-Shell its own directory tree, and possibly its own share name. Under UNIX on the other hand, it is normal to have multiple file systems, and there are some particularly good reasons for defining one or more individual file systems to keep A-Shell separate from the rest of the operating system:

•   Individual file systems can be separately backed up and restored.

•   Separate file systems are naturally insulated from each other, so that any corruption that occurs in one will not spill over to another. This will not only protect A-Shell from problems caused by some other application but also protect you from being accused by your system administrator of allowing your application to corrupt the system.

•   Since different file systems can be mounted at the same mount point (though not at the same time), you have the ability to easily switch to another version of your data or application (backup, test, archive, etc.) temporarily without making any changes to A-Shell or your application. (This works best when you have "extra" scratch file systems available which you can restore a tape to.)

•   Putting your A-Shell application in a separate file system will eliminate the possibility that you can bring the system down by filling up the disk. You may still cause your application to halt when it runs out of space, but the operating system will not be affected.