Absolute /work directory is difficult to work with.

[dblotsky]

By default, might it be better to have something like ./work? If an absolute path is needed, would something like ~/.smtrecords work?

[dblotsky]

Also, it doesn't seem like the directory is created by default (as far as I noticed). Should it be?

[mtrberzi]

The intent is that the directory is given with an absolute path because, in the "intended" mode of operation, the directory is picked up and used by workers in a distributed environment, and the workers are accessing a shared filesystem.

I'd like to fix this so that only workbase needs to be specified in the configuration, and everything is taken relative to that path. A reasonable default could be ~/.smtrecords as you suggest, which could be created if it doesn't exist (that doesn't happen right now because I assume you've done something to set this directory up in advance if it's a shared FS).