ES-DE starts the libretro MAME core with a command line as its content
in 22 commands across 21 systems ("apple2e -rompath \"%GAMEDIRRAW%;
%ROMPATH%/apple2\" -flop1 ...", resources/systems/linux/es_systems.xml
at RetroDECK's 15e1b236 and EmuDeck's ES-DE v3.5.0), run through the
shell by popen (es-core/src/utils/PlatformUtil.cpp:231, 257).
At 5f5a0774 the core reads content that is no file as a command line
(retro_init.cpp:966-1008). Set_Path_Option passes its own -rompath
<content dir>;<system>/mame/bios;<system>/mame/roms (580-597), then
every word of the command line follows, -rompath included, only -rp
being dropped when mame_paths_enable is off (902-940, 914-919). MAME
keeps the later value of an option given twice at one priority
(src/lib/util/options.cpp:260-276, clifront.cpp:243). Those commands
read their sets in the folders they name, and mame/bios stays read by
every command that passes none.
The ES-DE parser records these commands in searched_by with their core,
the mame profile declares libretro_pools (-rompath and -rp stand for
mame/bios), and a set there also goes to each folder a command names
for a machine that reads it.
Manifests: EmuDeck gains 16 files below roms/ (apple2, apple2gs,
astrocde, crvision, gamate, gamecom, gmaster, intellivision, odyssey2,
scv, supracan, vectrex, videopac, vsmile). RetroDECK does not change:
its standalone MAME commands already put the same sets at the same
paths. No file leaves.
ES-DE starts standalone MAME with -rompath %GAMEDIR%\;%ROMPATH%/<system>
in 78 live commands across 54 systems (resources/systems/linux/
es_systems.xml at retrodeck-main-20261103-162710, 15e1b236; two more
are commented out). The command line outranks mame.ini, so RetroDECK's
MAME reads its sets in the roms folder each command names and in no
BIOS folder. The ES-DE rom folders parser now records, per folder, the
folders a standalone command passes as its ROM search path and the
machines it starts, or that the game is the machine (%BASENAME%).
Rescraped at the pinned revisions: retrodeck, emudeck and
emudeck-windows gain these records and nothing else.
A command reads the sets its machines load: the machine's own set, the
BIOS sets on its romof chain and the device sets with ROMs it
instantiates, from games/arcade/mame.json (mame0289 -listxml). That
index now also lists the game and device sets of each driver source
file, so a %BASENAME% folder reads for its board: neogeo and stv by
their BIOS root, cps1-3 and model2 by source file, daphne and laserdisc
by the laserdisc player devices, gameandwatch and lcdgames by the
handheld sources, any other (arcade, mame, consolearcade) for every
machine. The published installer copy of the index leaves the sources
out.
Manifests: RetroDECK gains 1399 files, 378.2 MB, below roms/. Of the 219
sets named as read outside the BIOS folder, 58 reach 146 files (25.9 MB),
161 stay named, no command's machine reading them. 441 sets RetroDECK's
list also declares at bios/ reach 1253 files (352.3 MB), 429 each in
arcade and mame and 480 in consolearcade. No other platform changes.
GitLab refused the hundred raw reads per IP. A GitLab directory is now
read from one archive request, else a shallow sparse git fetch, and the
cache keeps its file list so offline runs know what is absent.
Each board builds system.ini against its defconfig: a core whose package
the board does not enable is dropped (pisnes was the SNES default
everywhere), and a system with no core is not built. The row names the
default most boards share, board_defaults the others. A files: list
names whole files and is carried as files through the index and the
installer.
A folder no name resolves, run by a core of several machines, now holds
those machines: thomson, multivision and pcv2 had no fallback, so their
games got no file. Arcade-indexed cores keep naming files per set.
The games importers wrote through fixed .part names, the new options had
no help text, and romfolders stopped on the first setup the offline cache
lacked. RetroArch's rom folder map is regenerated from its source spec
(path null, as the schema says). The installer's Python 3.8 job imports
the games tests without pyyaml, so the region rules load lazily.
Abdessamad Derraz