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moving or copying the Macaulay2 files

It is important, if you want to move or copy the Macaulay2 files, to move or copy the entire directory tree, so their relative locations do not change.

When M2 starts up, it locates the files it needs (such as setup.m2), by first locating M2 and then traversing the directory tree it expects to find M2 in. If you copy or move just M2 (or M2.exe, under windows) to some other directory, then that traversal will not be successful.

There are other ways to arrange for M2 to be on your PATH: with a symbolic link, or by adding a directory name to the PATH; see teaching your shell how to find M2.