mame_hash_scraper --release rewrote the whole profile and dropped the
pin_frozen that mame0258 and mame0278 carry: libretro/mame HEAD is a
later release, so without it profile_sync compares their refs with code
the Recalbox build never had. A release profile now states it, from
built_by, and keeps the reason a reader wrote.
A set whose every ROM is NO_DUMP or ROM_OPTIONAL only warns in
handle_missing_file, so the machine runs without it. The parser now
keeps undumped and optional ROMs for that decision, the merge and the
release profiles write required false for such sets, and the text
patcher rewrites the required line it used to leave. A curated false
over a set with dumped ROMs is kept, except over no contents, which is
what an undumped set leaves once a later release dumps it.
pSxMAME builds mamedev/mame itself at 0.133 and left the current
refresh, which would have moved it onto 0.289 refs. Release profiles
keep their citations double-quoted on regeneration.
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.
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 MAME and FBNeo hash scrapers cached an empty parse for 24 hours and
reported OK. Both now raise before writing, and an empty cache is never
served as fresh.
--emulator accepts a buildbot core name from a profile's cores:, and a
mistyped target gets the closest names instead of every target. diff_truth
shows destinations and reports unpaired entries as evidence, not removals.
The verify summary counts discrepancies, a shared destination names both
systems, a truth hash conflict names both cores, and pipeline steps carry
their place in the real run instead of N/8. Every GitHub API caller takes
the token from github_token(), which falls back to gh auth token.
A machine that instantiates a device loads the device's ROMs from <shortname>.zip (src/emu/device.cpp:140-152), and a missing required ROM stops that machine (romload.cpp:529-570, 667-671). The BIOS root scan never sees these sets. mame_hash_scraper --devices --listxml reads them from the -listxml of the release mame.yml pins, refuses another release, and cites each set at the ROM_START block holding its ROMs. The BIOS root merge also wrote refs without the upstream prefix and would have rewritten all 171 of them in mame.yml.
Profiles, the wiki, comments, docstrings, command output and schema descriptions carried em-dashes, clause-joining semicolons, unicode arrows, box-drawing banners and check-mark glyphs. Each sentence was rewritten rather than having its character swapped. Hashes, paths, source_ref values and every cited file:line are unchanged, which a comparison of each parsed profile against the previous revision confirms.
validate_pr comments now say PASS and FAIL in words, and source_ref values in a profile's structured blocks render as code. test_prose_style fails if any of these comes back, in tracked files or in the generated site.
generate_db wrote a database without the aliases of a profile it could not read, and the MAME and FBNeo refreshes passed without it. Each now names the file and exits non-zero.
argparse completed a prefix into the only flag starting with it:
slots.py --emulator read profiles from a directory named after the
emulator and reported nothing, and pipeline.py --all built every pack
variant. Every parser now refuses an abbreviation.
A failed rev-parse in the MAME clone returned an empty commit, which
was cached for a day and let the merge advance the profile's version
and refs while its upstream pin stayed on the previous release. The
scrape now stops instead.
Recalbox compiles libretro/mame at 0.258 and 0.278 itself; typed
libretro, both profiles were resolved for every all_libretro platform
although the buildbot RetroArch installs from has neither. A profile
now names the platforms that build it (built_by), and is reached only
when a platform lists it by name.
Recalbox ships libretro/mame built at 0.258 and at 0.278, and no
profile described either release. mame_hash_scraper gains --release,
which reads the BIOS root sets at one mamedev tag and writes a profile
pinned to it; mame0258 and mame0278 are generated from it, every
source_ref anchored at its tag.
Loading the emulator profiles is the most expensive step of every
command here, and all forty call sites used the pure-Python scanner
while libyaml sat unused in the same wheel. One shared yaml_load picks
the C loader when pyyaml ships it: the 375 profiles parse in 0.18s
instead of 1.39s, and verify --platform retroarch drops from 2.17s to
0.73s. The loader class is the same restricted one safe_load uses.
es_bios.xml was parsed straight from the network while install.py
already refused a document declaring entities; both now share one
guard. Scrapers reach it through a single path bootstrap in the
package rather than two ad-hoc ones.
Run ruff check --fix: remove unused imports (F401), fix f-strings
without placeholders (F541), remove unused variables (F841), fix
duplicate dict key (F601).
Run isort --profile black: normalize import ordering across all files.
Run ruff format: apply consistent formatting (black-compatible) to
all 58 Python files.
3 intentional E402 remain (imports after require_yaml() must execute
after yaml is available).
sparse clone upstream repos, parse BIOS root sets from C source,
cache as JSON, merge into emulator profiles with backup.
covers macro expansion, version detection, subset profile protection.
Abdessamad Derraz