When installing using the DMG, as far as I know, does not allow for doing anything other than allowing it to expand and run as it’s pre-configured. In other words I can’t select installation directory? I don’t want it to install to my desktop. Do I have to compile from code?
I’m not sure I understand the question, but if you run RetroArch from the DMG, it’s going to still write some files to the HDD, but they’re going to include a bunch of funky ephemeral paths that correspond to the temporary DMG locations.
Right and you likely don’t have control over where any of those files go, right? So I’d like the files to go into the folder /Users//Games/RetroArch and have all of the config files, ROMs, BIOS, and any alias there. So I’m assuming that the only way to make that happen is to install from source, which requires Xcode. Correct?
No, you should be able to change locations for things in settings > directory.
Do you suppose I can just copy/paste the files from where they get installed to move them to wherever I want and then update the locations in the settings? Usually when stuff installs it get split up all over the place with things in /etc/usr/bin or /lib or the user directory and then symlinks. Moving stuff around will break those, which I can fix again I guess.
I suppose so. It’s probably a fair bit of trouble, but it’s doable.