outdir vs workdir

[HealthyPear]

Unless I missed it, the documentation does not explain the difference
between these 2 configuration options for the fileio section:
https://fermipy.readthedocs.io/en/latest/config.html#fileio

What happens if they are not the same directories? Should they be?

[MiltosMichailidis]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out.
There is no requirement for the two directories (workdir and outdir) to be identical. It may be advantageous to designate both to the same path if one intends to access/load analysis results subsequent to the initial setup, optimization, or fit; however, this is not obligatory.

Outdir specifies the location where all analysis products will be stored following the execution of your analysis script. Workdir typically denotes the primary directory where the analysis script is stored, potentially alongside the configuration file and any background models.

In the absence of a specified outdir, the default setting is the directory containing the configuration file. It is worth noting that the utilization of both workdir and outdir is not strictly necessary.