Each version of the Cosmos SDK application is stored under either `genesis` or `upgrades/<name>`, which holds `bin/$DAEMON_NAME`
along with any other needed files such as auxiliary client programs or libraries. `current` is a symbolic link to the currently
active folder (so `current/bin/$DAEMON_NAME` is the currently active binary).
*Note: the `name` variable in `upgrades/<name>` holds the URI-encoded name of the upgrade as specified in the upgrade module plan.*
Please note that `$DAEMON_HOME/cosmovisor` just stores the *binaries* and associated *program code*.
The `cosmovisor` binary can be stored in any typical location (eg `/usr/local/bin`). The actual blockchain
program will store it's data under their default data directory (e.g. `$HOME/.gaiad`) which is independent of
the `$DAEMON_HOME`. You can choose to set `$DAEMON_HOME` to the actual binary's home directory and then end up
with a configuation like the following, but this is left as a choice to the system admininstrator for best
directory layout:
```
.gaiad
├── config
├── data
└── cosmovisor
```
## Usage
The system administrator admin is responsible for:
* installing the `cosmovisor` binary and configure the host's init system (e.g. `systemd`, `launchd`, etc) along with the environmental variables appropriately;
* installing the `genesis` folder manually;
* installing the `upgrades/<name>` folders manually.
`cosmovisor` will set the `current` link to point to `genesis` at first start (when no `current` link exists) and handles
binaries switch overs at the correct points in time, so that the system administrator can prepare days in advance and relax at upgrade time.
Note that blockchain applications that wish to support upgrades may package up a genesis `cosmovisor` tarball with this information,
just as they prepare the genesis binary tarball. In fact, they may offer a tarball will all upgrades up to current point for easy download
for those who wish to sync a fullnode from start.
The `DAEMON` specific code and operations (e.g. tendermint config, the application db, syncing blocks, etc) are performed as normal.
Application binaries' directives such as command-line flags and environment variables work normally.
## Example: simd
The following instructions provide a demonstration of `cosmovisor`'s integration with the `simd` application
For the sake of this demonstration, we would amend `voting_params.voting_period` in `.simapp/config/genesis.json` to a reduced time ~5 minutes (300s) and eventually launch `cosmosvisor`: