Setting the bottle search path

You can control the list of directories where CrossOver looks for bottles by setting the CX_BOTTLE_PATH environment variable. By default this variable is set to ~/.cxoffice. To not have to set the modified path manually each time you run CrossOver, edit ~/.cxoffice/cxoffice.conf and add the following lines:

[EnvironmentVariables]
"CX_BOTTLE_PATH"="/extra/bottles:~/.cxoffice"

CrossOver will then first look for bottles in /extra/bottles and then in the standard location. Also note that CrossOver will create new bottles in the first writable directory present in the search path. So order is important.

Furthermore CrossOver will not move existing bottles to the new location. So you need to either keep the default bottle location in the list, or to move your existing bottles manually. A simple move command should do the trick:

$ mv "~/.cxoffice/bottlename" /extra/bottles

If you installed CrossOver globally you may want this setting to have an effect on all users. To do so you would set it in the global configuration file, that is in /opt/cxoffice/etc/cxoffice.conf. You should also make sure each user gets his own bottle directory. Usually you would do so by using the USER environment variable like so:

[EnvironmentVariables]
"CX_BOTTLE_PATH"="/extra/${USER}/bottles"

Similarly, when you publish a bottle it is normally put in /opt/cxoffice/etc. However you can change this by setting the CX_MANAGED_BOTTLE_PATH environment variable, for instance by adding the following lines to /opt/cxoffice/etc/cxoffice.conf:

[EnvironmentVariables]
"CX_MANAGED_BOTTLE_PATH"="/extra/managed_bottles"

Note that this time we've put this setting in the global configuration file so it is accessible by all users. Also, as for CX_BOTTLE_PATH, the first writable directory will be used and existing bottles will not be moved around.