From 7a65a2cf8385c45eef0cd93e1406ea6754a664c8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Abdessamad Derraz <3028866+Abdess@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2026 15:09:16 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] fix: refuse an export without its original

System.dat, RomM, Recalbox and RetroBat were rebuilt from our data when
their file was not cached: libretro's quoted names, Recalbox's comments
and one of its two zxspectrum blocks were lost, and the run said OK.
needs_original now follows native_sources, so every format we patch
fails without the file it patches and writes nothing.
---
 scripts/export_native.py          |  5 +----
 scripts/exporter/base_exporter.py | 13 +++++++++----
 tests/test_exporters.py           | 25 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/scripts/export_native.py b/scripts/export_native.py
index 0f9ad98a..526e7478 100644
--- a/scripts/export_native.py
+++ b/scripts/export_native.py
@@ -472,11 +472,8 @@ def export_platform(
     originals, missing = collect_originals(
         exporter, systems, upstream_dir, allow_fetch, scraped
     )
-    if missing and exporter.needs_original():
+    if missing:
         return False, [f"the platform's own file is required: {m}" for m in missing]
-    messages.extend(
-        f"original unavailable, written from our data: {m}" for m in missing
-    )
 
     try:
         produced = exporter.render(systems, report, originals, scraped)
diff --git a/scripts/exporter/base_exporter.py b/scripts/exporter/base_exporter.py
index 34bdf9c2..164e27e4 100644
--- a/scripts/exporter/base_exporter.py
+++ b/scripts/exporter/base_exporter.py
@@ -50,10 +50,15 @@ class BaseExporter(ABC):
         """
         return {}
 
-    @staticmethod
-    def needs_original() -> bool:
-        """Whether a faithful export requires the platform's own file."""
-        return False
+    @classmethod
+    def needs_original(cls) -> bool:
+        """Whether a faithful export requires the platform's own file.
+
+        Any format we patch does: System.dat rebuilt from our data lost
+        libretro's quoted names, es_bios.xml its comments and one of its two
+        zxspectrum blocks, and both runs said OK.
+        """
+        return bool(cls.native_sources())
 
     @staticmethod
     def may_write_nothing() -> bool:
diff --git a/tests/test_exporters.py b/tests/test_exporters.py
index 1eb64f10..9d4d229b 100644
--- a/tests/test_exporters.py
+++ b/tests/test_exporters.py
@@ -477,6 +477,31 @@ class ExporterRegistry(unittest.TestCase):
             with self.subTest(platform=name):
                 self.assertTrue(discover_exporters()[name].needs_original())
 
+    def test_every_exporter_with_an_original_needs_it(self):
+        """System.dat, RomM, Recalbox and RetroBat were rebuilt from our data
+        when their file was not cached: libretro's quoted names, Recalbox's
+        comments and its second zxspectrum block were lost, and the run
+        said OK."""
+        for name, exporter in discover_exporters().items():
+            if exporter.native_sources():
+                with self.subTest(platform=name):
+                    self.assertTrue(exporter.needs_original())
+
+    def test_an_export_without_its_original_writes_nothing(self):
+        import export_native  # noqa: PLC0415
+
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(dir=REPO_ROOT / "tmp") as tmp:
+            output = Path(tmp) / "out"
+            ok, messages = export_native.export_platform(
+                "retroarch", discover_exporters()["retroarch"],
+                REPO_ROOT / "dist" / "truth", output,
+                str(REPO_ROOT / "platforms"), Path(tmp) / "no-cache", False,
+            )
+            if not (REPO_ROOT / "dist" / "truth" / "retroarch.yml").exists():
+                self.skipTest("dist/truth not generated")
+            self.assertFalse(ok, messages)
+            self.assertFalse(output.exists())
+
 
 class SearchOrder(unittest.TestCase):
     """A list is read in the order the code looks, best first."""