Hi Steve, I reviewed the corresponding mkgmap files again, heading to implement getOutputDir(). This approach would create a central place where - the directory is read or set to DEFAULT_DIR - the pathname is tested for presence - the directory is created (if not existing) But it has some downsides too: - The above 3 actions are executed for each call of getOutputDir(). - CommandArgs is not easily accessible from classes like DEM.java or MapMaker.java (createMap needs a pathname) Apart from this, createMap() would have to be extended to 4 arguments (+ outputDir) in any case. One thing to solve the above problems would be to rewrite "output-dir" at parsing time. Though this would violate the semantics somehow, the cleaned up value could be retrieved by simply calling config.getProperty(). I don't want to mess around in your code unnecessarily; so what's your opinion towards that? All the best, /Markus