# Choose database paths and independent copies

`--db` selects the database file independently from `--config-file`. Moving a database path does not move the users file, diagnostic destinations or the confined input-file root. Relative user and log paths start at the configuration directory.

```sh
./coordinator serve --config-file /srv/coordinator/config.xml --db /srv/data/app.db
```

This illustrates path selection, not a requirement to use those directories. Prepare existing configuration and suitable filesystem access before startup. Use the intended listener addresses for the instance.

A path does not create remote storage semantics. The public interface does not document automatic separation of query compute from an object-storage service, and several processes must not open one database file simultaneously. Multiple applications can instead connect to one server that owns the file.

For an independent copy, use `VACUUM INTO` rather than copying only the live database file. Run it outside a transaction, choose an absent or empty destination and check the documented source restrictions. Open the resulting copy only with its own owner process and distinct listeners.

See [configuration paths](https://coordinatordb.com/docs/concepts/features/configuration/server-config/configuration-files), [deployment modes](https://coordinatordb.com/docs/get-started/about/deployment-modes), [database copies](https://coordinatordb.com/docs/concepts/features/backup-restore/overview) and [file sources](https://coordinatordb.com/docs/reference/functions/table-functions/file).