Help setting up portable AM with Retroarch in Windows

[pressDUCK]

Hi, I am falling flat on my face trying to get relative paths working with Retroarch in Windows 10

I have RetroArch inside of the AM folder
I can start emulator and roms using the full path eg C:\users\whatever\this directory\then that directory\AM\RetroArch\retroarch.exe
I can't, however, figure out how to use ./ or ../ to make a path relative to the AM directory.
The command argument -L .\cores\xxx relative path works fine after the retroarch directory is flagged 'working directory'
I see scraped images showing up in the AM directory with the $HOME/.snesx/artstuff
What is this $HOME path doing, is it relative to a certain directory configured by AM?
The $HOME is used differently as the default for emulators eg $HOME/MESS/MESS this example not using a relative "."
What I want are relative directories to launch the cores and roms.
I am ignorant of something basic.
Can anyone offer me advice on how to get retroarch working? I'd rather use RA than manually set up all these emulators.

Thanks

[Deu]

I give you an example of a portable Attract Mode with RetroArch inside emu folder:

executable           emu/retroarch/retroarch.exe
args                 -L cores/fbalpha_libretro.dll "[romfilename]"
rompath              /attract/games/fba <---- IMPORTANT!!! path from the root of directory or RA doesn't launch the game.
romext               .zip
system               Arcade
info_source          listsoftware
import_extras        extras/mame.xml;nplayers.ini;catver.ini;controls.ini
artwork    flyer           emu/mame/flyers
artwork    marquee         emu/mame/marquees
artwork    snap            media/mame/video;emu/mame/snap
artwork    wheel           media/mame/images/wheel

The $HOME is the root of your User directory, don't use this if you want portability.

[pressDUCK]

Thanks for the help, Deu.
The exe runs fine with your config
As do flyer snap wheel.
The Roms, however, are not found
RA only starts when a full path to roms is entered
Does your message:
   "IMPORTANT!!! path from the root of directory or RA doesn't launch the game"
 Mean that AM needs to be installed in the Root of the drive?

Thank You much. Yes your message ""IMPORTANT!!! path from the root of directory or RA doesn't launch the game" did mean that the path was from the root of directory or RA doesn't launch the game

For posterity, as far as I can tell, Attract Mode must be installed in the root of the drive for it to be portable.
And thank you to the authors.

[denmiclaw]

Here's one of my configs.  It works with no issues using relative paths.  I have used this on my C: and from a portable HDD.

My setup is a folder on the root of the drive called Emulation.  The folder layout looks a bit like this but with more entries.

Emulation-
   Emulators-
      Retroarch
   Front Ends-
      Attract Mode
   Systems-
      Consoles-
         Atari 2600-
            Boxes            
            Roms
            Videos
            Wheels
   Utilities
      JoyToKey

And here's my config file for Atari 600

# Generated by Attract-Mode v2.2.1
#
executable           ..\..\Emulators\Retroarch\Retroarch.exe
args                 "[romfilename]" -L cores\stella_libretro.dll -fullscreen
rompath              ..\..\Systems\Consoles\Atari 2600\Roms
romext               .zip
system               Atari 2600
info_source          thegamesdb.net
artwork    flyer           
artwork    marquee         
artwork    snap            ..\..\Systems\Consoles\Atari 2600\Videos
artwork    wheel           ..\..\Systems\Consoles\Atari 2600\Wheels

Basically, using my folder setup, the starting point is the Attract Mode directory.  From there, the first ..\ drops back to the Front Ends directory, then the second ..\ drops to the Emulation directory - from there it goes into \Emulators then into \Retroarch to run retroarch.exe.  The paths for the roms work the same way, it tells retroarch to drop down 2 folders, then go into systems\consoles\atari 2600\roms and run the romfilename.