generate_site.py writes the Starlight project in website/ and nothing
else: mkdocs.yml, the MkDocs hooks, theme overrides and stylesheet go,
and the wiki is written in Starlight's syntax. Both workflows set up
Node with the official actions/setup-node pinned by commit, run npm ci
from the committed lockfile, build with the strict link validator and
check the result with validate_site.py.
The search weighs a page by what it answers: Start here pages first,
a system page's cards and file names before a guide citing them, deep
guides, launchers, aliases and frozen copies after. Status badges,
hash blocks and the export change lists leave the index. The ranking
sits at the centre of a range where the 13 queries of search_gate.py
all answer, in the search box itself.
839 pages, every URL and 45,611 ids match the MkDocs build. The tests
read the Starlight content and syntax.
EmuELEC declares 19 files of the Tyrian 2.1 distribution (setup.ini,
netterm.int, the net*.pcx screens...) that bios/ did not hold. They
resolved only at the data directory step, against data/opentyrian, the
cache refresh_data_dirs.py fills from the opentyrian-data.zip asset. verify
gave 544/572 in a checkout holding that cache and 525/572 in one without
it, for the same commit.
The 19 files are taken from the freeware tyrian21.zip (camanis.net, sha1
29827de9), each equal to the cached copy. netset.pcx and tyrset.pcx are
the same bytes under two names, so the folder joins NODEDUP_DIRS. A test
resolves every platform entry with the data directory caches present and
fails on any that only a cache answers.
Platform guides, device groups, terminal tabs, pack README manuals and
logo credits move from Python tables to platforms/_guides.yml, checked
against the registry on load. A folder row without a path is the
registry's extract_to, written once.
Wiki pages place themselves in the navigation with order and nav_title
in their front matter. Generated docs/ and mkdocs.yml are unchanged.
validate_site.py fails a page over 1 MB of HTML, a search index over
8.5 MB (1.7 MB gzip), a skipped heading level, a table header without
text, a script from another host and a diagram drawn at runtime. The
limits sit above what the site now measures (0.88 MB, 7.2 MB, 1.43 MB),
each with its reason, and each has a test.
The redesign moved the technical questions to technical-faq.md, made the Get your files rows generated from each platform key and reduced getting-started.md to links. Tests now read those places: the pack-row test reads the rendered page. The new site scripts go through run_cli and refuse abbreviated options. The three maintenance image tools are exempt by name from the build dependency rule: their output is committed and the build only reads it. siteguides.py now triggers the site deploy, and the recipe counts match the store.
Five tabs from Start here to Contribute, a level on every page, a device picker on Get your files that lists every registered platform, and platform pages that open on where the files go, the command, the pack and how to check. FAQ and troubleshooting keep the questions asked before installing, the technical ones move to their own page, and getting started points to the pages that took its content.
The -listxml names the software lists each machine and slot card
declares and the floppy drives it can instantiate. --devices now writes
one entry per hash/<list>.xml the release ships under the systems of its
placed machines (111 lists, 666 stay with hash/), and files each floppy
sample under the systems whose drives select its form factor
(floppy.cpp:1428-1473, 1759-1767).
Machines a registered platform declares under one of the profile's
systems seed the walk too: bbcb, cdimono1, cdimono2, dragon32, ep64 and
ep128. Unplaced device sets go from 903 to 861.
The -listxml names, for every machine, its parent (romof), the devices of its default configuration (device_ref) and the cards its slots offer (slotoption). A machine takes the system of the first set on its romof chain a written entry lists, and passes it to each device it can instantiate. A device set reached from one system gets system:, from several the new per-entry systems:, from none neither, and keeps serving every system of the profile. The gap report, the core extras and slots read the entry's own systems, so generate_pack --system and the installer pick by them.
generate_pack and verify read --system beside --platform through common.resolve_system_arg, built on platform_system_names, the mapping the manifest's system_names comes from. verify --platform --system now reports on the narrowed pack. Unknown names are refused with suggestions before the database is read.
verify resolved offline, so a release asset absent from bios/ and the
cache read as missing while an online build fetched and packed it. verify
now reads the database record of the registered path and counts such a
declaration present, listed as fetched at build time. --offline keeps the
old count, and the offline pipeline passes it to its verify step.
Step 2a advanced mame.yml's core_version and upstream_commit to a new
release and left the device ROM sets on the previous one. A plain run
that moves the pin now fetches that release's listxml into .cache/dats
and runs the device merge, which checks version and commit itself.
The acquisition report never read a profile, so XM7's required DICROM.ROM
sat among 2 287 targets at the rank of dumps no core reads. A missing
entry that a profile reads and the collection lacks is now listed first
with the profile, matched by hash or, for a hashless entry with a size,
by name and size. 29 entries on the current snapshots.
A crc32 and a size can be met by crafted bytes, so a remote download
matched on them could land in bios/. verify_content now requires every
sha256, sha1 and md5 the entry declares to match, and an entry declaring
none is reported as not verifiable from the network and nothing is
written. crc32 and size still find a file the database already holds.
verify_content read sha1 then md5 only, so an entry pinned by sha256 or
crc32 could be searched and never accepted, and one without any hash was
announced as searched. The strongest declared hash now decides, crc32
counts with its size, the database lookup reads sha256 and crc32, and an
entry with nothing to prove a download by is reported, not searched.
check_freshness exited 0 when no upstream answered. An unknown row now
holds the exit code, and a profile skipped by nature is reported skipped
so it does not hold it forever. --only names the valid areas, a stale
native row names its platform, and the summary names refresh_stale.py.
refresh_stale ran a parent's rescrape and its children's truth and
export jobs side by side, so a child read the parent mid-rewrite. A job
now starts once the rescrapes of its ancestors have ended, and a child
no row names gets its export rewritten after them. A rescrape chain ends
on verify.py --platform, whose summary closes the report.
The FBNeo import recorded the listing's blob sha for bytes fetched from a
branch URL a CDN caches, and --fetch <revision> still read the tip. The
revision is now resolved to a commit, listed and downloaded there, each
DAT is held against its blob sha, and a DAT read at a named revision is
labelled with it without replacing the tip's recorded blobs.
The pipeline locked only --output-dir while it also writes database.json,
install/, README.md and docs/. A run on a scratch output directory could
start beside the run on dist/ and rewrite them. Every run now holds the
repository's .lock first.
release_record rebuilt nothing from the name builder: a substring match
took RetroArch_v1.22.2_AndroidArm64V8A_BIOS_Pack.zip for the RetroArch
pack. The record now refuses any pack that is not a registered platform's
full pack and stores the platforms each pack serves, which the readers
use instead of the pack name.
--detect-new-files and --watch-hashes were printed only by the text report and refused with --json, so check_freshness --profiles never saw a name or hash the cited code gained. Both now live on the report, and check_freshness passes them and marks such a profile stale.
profile_sync gains --changed (added or edited profiles, uncommitted
ones included) and --added, both against the merge base of --base
(origin/main by default). CONTRIBUTING runs --changed --strict instead
of one --emulator call per new profile, and the CI job runs --added
in place of its own diff loop.
The 3.12 guard rested on generate_readme f-strings that have since been
rewritten. Every script compiles under CPython 3.9.25, 3.10 and 3.11, and
only generate_pack's parenthesized context managers fail under 3.8. Under
3.9 the offline pipeline (--skip-packs) completed with no change to the
committed artifacts, the 15 manifests matched 3.12 byte for byte, and the
RomM pack was identical. CI now compiles every script under a real 3.9.
The recipe snapshot kept only the archives a profile or platform names,
so provenance_report --missing named no set for dumps a public romset
carries (fm7740sx holds the FM77AV40SX DICROM, EXTSUB and KANJI2 ROMs).
The importer now also keeps the sets holding a catalog entry the
collection lacks. Reimported from mame0289 and the cached FBNeo DATs:
MAME 1726 to 2148 recipes, FBNeo 104 to 111, none dropped.
The help said "Only regenerate DB and verify" while steps 1b, 4d, 7 and
8 still ran and rewrote derivable.json, README.md and docs/. It now names
the steps it skips and points to --skip-docs.
The triage, --changed-only and --strict counted refs only. Prose that
--realign-prose would move or refuse blocks every recale and bump, and
blastem read 0 to review. Each report now carries that reading. The
triage also gets a header, a closing count, and one sampling notice per
run instead of one per profile.
architecture.md drew path_suffix ahead of SHA1 and listed a core
resolution that missed the retroarch list entry and built_by. Both now
link to the one statement that matches common.py. The Recalbox table
read hashMatchMandatory into verify.py, which never reads it, and
md5_composite hashes member contents, not member MD5s
(Zip.cpp:71-96). The validation index is built from the platform's
resolved profiles only. The requirement table gains the fields that
make a platform YAML reversible, and pages that name a platform list
say what changes rather than judging it.
A value of another length was looked up as an MD5 and reported NOT FOUND,
a SHA-256 was dropped, and an input with no hash ended on "No valid
hashes found in input". Digests are now read by length (CRC32, MD5 and
its 29-digit Batocera form, SHA-1, SHA-256), SHA-256 is looked up in the
database, and any other value is refused with the formats accepted.
Step 5 compared (ok, total) and the core file count. RetroArch, Lakka
and RetroPie read 526/526 on both sides while verify credited four paths
below SGB1.sfc and SGB2.sfc that the pack never writes: a declared file
blocks them as a directory. verify now places the platform files in the
builder's order with the same path rules, and a user_provided or
external declaration keeps its slot on both sides, so no core file takes
it in the report only.
verify --destinations writes the paths each pack holds by the report,
and step 5 compares them with the archive members (notes and data tree
members set aside). Every emulator profile, in each build it has, is
built in memory (PackRecord, nothing read or written) and compared with
verify --emulator path by path. Cost measured here: about 1 s per
platform archive and 11 s for the 930 emulator packs.
The coreinfo area compared .info names only: a firmwareN_path added to a
profiled core's .info came out OK. check_freshness now compares each
profiled .info's git blob with platforms/_core_info.json, recorded on
2026-10-21 from the current listing, and --record-coreinfo CORE records
one as reviewed.
The Required packs and manifests carried every data tree, the FreeIntv
overlays included. A data_directories entry now accepts required: false,
and the platform, emulator and manifest walks leave such a tree out under
--required-only. FreeIntv reads its overlays only with the multi-screen
option and draws a placeholder keypad without one (src/libretro.c:294-296,
350-369).
--verify-packs after an --all-variants build rebuilt only the full pack's
name and opened it alone. The five narrowed packs of the same run passed
without a line. Each one is now named with the hash check the build ran
on its members.
Abdessamad Derraz