Where is the official ado directory?

• If you use Windows, it is probably C:\Program Files\Stata12\ado, but it might be someplace else.
• If you use Mac, it is /Applications/Stata/ado. That is, it is the ado folder in the official Stata folder.
• If you use Unix, it is /usr/local/stata12/ado.

Within the official ado directory, there are two subdirectories: base and updates. The official ado-files that shipped with Stata are stored in base. Any official updates should be installed in updates and are automatically placed there by Stata’s update command.

To see the location of the official base and updates directories, start Stata and type sysdir:

       . sysdir
          ...
        UPDATES:  C:\Program Files\Stata12\ado\updates\
           BASE:  C:\Program Files\Stata12\ado\base\
          ...