core_version is a string the code states, null or keyed by build mode,
and the schema refuses Git, SVN, unknown, master, main, latest, dev and
HEAD, alone or annotated. version_basis is defined per kind with the
fields each one needs, and kind none requires a null version.
tests/test_version_basis.py reads a recorded fixture of forge answers
offline and fails on drift, holds every profile to a basis (tag versions
in describe form, aliases equal to their profile, none as null), checks
that a pin advance reads the version again or is refused, and that the
schema refuses placeholders.
The installer reads the version the system states in its own file,
without running anything: batocera.version, recalbox.version (a release
only), RetroBat's system/version.info, VERSION_ID in os-release on Lakka
and EmuELEC. When it differs from the version the list was built for, a
line says so before the install and again with the result, and the new
version event carries it for the screen. An unknown version says
nothing, and the install never stops on it.
install/<platform>.json wrote the constant "1.0" as the version of the
list it was built from. The manifest now carries the version the platform
YAML records, and generate_pack refuses a YAML without one.
inherits: no longer passes a parent's version to a child: Lakka was
published as RetroArch v1.22.2 in its manifest, pack name and site page.
lakka.yml records v6.1, the Lakka-LibreELEC tag its target list is read
at. The MiSTer scraper refuses a BiosDB without a timestamp instead of
writing an empty version.
A pack's manifest.json records list_version, so an install from the pack
alone knows it too. Manifests regenerated twice and compared: only
version and generated changed.
hle_fallback needs the file to change the run: Beetle PSX hashes every file of its folder, so opened is not used. PCSX-ReARMed hides the BIOS logo by default: its BIOS load line stands for the bios stage. A check runs again only when the oracle entries of its content and core change, and the rules run on every pass from the kept records.
pack_probe.py lays a platform's BIOS folder out from its pack, or with install.py --dest, and starts each test game through core_probe with that folder, mapping every file the core opened to the pack entry that put it there.
The MinUI family's lists record cores and regions and no system: every
narrowing was refused with a remedy that fetched the same list. Each
option is now refused by the axis missing, with what works, and a pack
names its platform's list only when that list records the axis. Line
mode names what c chooses and skips a question with one answer, and
Options leaves out parallel downloads when nothing is downloaded.
Record version 4 carries verdict and verdict_evidence on every repetition and variant, verdicts on a check result, and inputs.oracle. Version 3 records stay valid.
Answers code_audit_17 and tui_audit_10: the folder found after o, SHARE
drive roots, one same-choice command, a counted confirm step in line
mode, counts from the narrowed list, read-only advice without sudo,
systems recorded in packs, Ctrl-Z stopping the whole job, and the
wording, layout and docs items.
Without a working bubblewrap the pass is refused and nothing third-party runs, probes require the sandbox and builds are refused, unless --allow-unsandboxed is given. A job report holding an alert raises an autorun alert.
core_probe starts its worker with only the --env values, the worker clears its own environment before loading the core, and a working bubblewrap runs it with a read-only tree, no network and the user's credentials masked. The record names the isolation used. A timeout kills the whole process group. campaign.py starts core_probe, git, make and romfetch with the allowlist, make inside the same sandbox. --record refuses a folder that is not a checkout root.
campaign.py takes buildbot nightlies (or a build of the pinned commit), the test content of tests/campaign/content.yml through romfetch, and runs core_probe for the files, boot, path, alias, variants and bench checks. A fixed rule table settles hle_fallback, required, path and aliases with the record ids as evidence, the rest goes to measurements/findings.jsonl. Resumable state, load, disk and budget guards, retries, content reference counting with an LRU cap, and an autorun job after the nightly.
Each line of measurements/<emulator>.jsonl now holds the whole run:
every repetition, core logs, per-frame hashes and raw timings. The gzip
data files, the data schema and the split and join code are gone, and
core_probe --record appends one line. record_version moves to 3.
The seven records are rewritten once: each new line equals its old line
joined with its data file, and rebuilds the first-layout file its id
hashes.
The site compiles the index and the SQLite files from measurements/
instead of a pinned clone. The pin, the sync script, the CI clone steps,
the freshness area and its refresh handler are gone. core_probe --record
writes into measurements/ of the checkout by default, and a test fails
when a line or data file HEAD holds changed or vanished.
A record is now one line of records/<emulator>.jsonl in the measurements repository, under 20 KB, and a gzip sidecar holding every repetition, the core logs and the raw timings, its sha256 in the line. record_version 2, core-probe-data.schema.json for the sidecar. core_probe --record appends to a measurements clone and refuses a directory inside this repository's tracked tree.
The seven records of issue 85 moved to Abdess/retrobios-measurements: each line plus its sidecar rebuilds the first file, and keeps its first id.
core_probe.py loads a libretro core with no window, runs it for a
number of frames and reports the files it opened (strace), its log
lines, frame, audio and save-state hashes and its speed. bench repeats
a run after warm-up and gives median, mean, deviation and range; check
swaps one system file between runs and compares one observable.
--record writes a JSON record with the core build, frontend commit,
host and every input by hash, validated against
core-probe-record.schema.json. A busy host is refused, and a
repetition that disagrees with the first is flagged.
A system that runs from its SD card (Onion, spruceOS, muOS, KNULLI,
MinUI...) named with --platform on a computer no longer takes that
computer's RetroArch folder: one mounted card of that system is used,
at a terminal the card root is asked, without questions the run stops
on the --dest example. The interface opens the card screen with the
mounted cards first.
The result pager scrolls and counts lines, so its last line is
reachable at every size. The setup filter knows the devices each
setup runs on, from the guides and the firmware pages. A new event
kind, data, gives the bytes of the data trees, and the plan shows
them.
--add-app, the result screen and a [y/N] question put the launcher of
muOS, KNULLI or ROCKNIX on the card the BIOS folder is on. The files come
from install/launchers/index.json at the same ref, each checked by size
and SHA-256 before the first is written, and the app event reports it.
One closed folder under HOME (~/.config/EmuDeck at 000) made the whole
detection return nothing: a RetroArch whose retroarch.cfg was readable
was lost and the run fell back to a folder it does not read. Every
detection probe now goes through _exists, _is_dir or _is_file, which
count a refused place as absent, name the closed folder once, and let
the other probes go on. The decorator stays as the last net.
The refusal is an unsearched event before detect. The interface keeps
the line above the list of setups. At HOME or a drive root A goes into
a visible subfolder, never a card or drive row nor .cache, and with
none it stays on Use this folder and says where it is. A default folder
taken because the platform was not found is no longer called detected.
The API reads release_pack from the registry entry, not the inherited config, and the picker gets release-advertised.json. The lookup counts emulators that read a file by name, every record names what was declared, the Data page lists all schemas, the target lists and nested manifest fields, and systems.json items carry their api address.
The plan and the result now say how many files go to the save folder and
where, from a new saves event. With --from-pack they say the files come
from the pack, not a download. A stop asked for (Start+Select, SIGHUP)
ends on the plain outcome, without the log's last lines.
--declared-only keeps the entries the platform's own list declares
(cores: null), each slot settled to the platform's copy with no core
alternative left behind. Install, --check, --dry-run, --events,
--list-systems, --system, --region, --emulator, --target,
--installed-cores, --manifest and --from-pack apply it. --core,
--list-cores, --list-emulators, --list-platforms, --list-targets,
--standalone-copies, --restore and --tui refuse it, and the interface
does not open by itself with it. On Batocera it gives 353 files of
14531, the list batocera-systems checks.
Event decision: no schema bump. A `declared` key on `file` would add a
key to an existing kind, which schema 1 forbids. A new kind, `declared`,
follows `check` with the same counts over the platform's own files and
their dests in file-event order. Readers already skip a kind they do
not know (rbevents.py and the interface reader were checked), so
EVENT_SCHEMA stays 1.
An unknown --system is answered with the systems the list files its
key file under: --platform retroarch --system snk-neogeo now suggests
arcade, which holds neogeo.zip, instead of snk-neogeo-cd. neogeo, mvs
and aes follow the same route. Never taken, only suggested. A system
title the manifest carries (SNK Neo Geo CD) is taken for its id when
no other system shares it and no platform name reads the same.
schemas/install-events.schema.json is written from EVENT_KEYS by
scripts/generate_event_schema.py. validate_schemas.py reports a stale
file, and tests compare it with EVENT_KEYS and validate a real run.
Bootstrap pins recomputed.
A platform or emulator record whose value designates a collection
file carries its sha1 and is filed under the file's other hashes, so
a SHA1 paste finds the setups listing it by MD5. The data page shows
every manifest field, writes URL templates as code, states the EmuDeck
rule, the browser lookup and the empty lists. systems.json gives every
id holding files a page, Files to source splits at 100 rows with an
upload link per file, and MiSTer and BizHawk get no empty core table.
Apps such as AetherSX2 named their user data folder only in prose, so
the site could neither print it nor show only the OS tabs that apply.
data_root keys android, ios, windows, macos and linux, each with the
path the user finds and the source_ref that builds it.
upstream_frozen says why upstream_commit stays: the port vendors that
upstream tree, synced to that release, or merged that commit. The view
is then read at its own pin, the way pin_frozen holds source_commit, and
a bump leaves it. Outside a GitHub fork network nothing else could tell
aps3e's vendored RPCS3 1f080485 from an upstream read on a date.
release_pack: true in the registry is the list a release builds: RetroArch,
EmuDeck, RetroBat, Batocera, RomM and MiSTer, 83% of the downloads of
v2026.10.10. generate_pack --all, --verify-packs, the pipeline consistency
step, release_record and check_release read it. Manifests are still written
for every platform.
Each manifest carries system_titles, the name the site prints for every system its files list (Sony PlayStation, not sony-playstation or psx), so the installer can show it. Older installers ignore the field.
batocera.linux 6b08b873 lets a biosFiles item declare its md5 as a
list of strings, and checkBios accepts a file matching any of them.
The scrapers join the values with commas, as for Recalbox, and record
md5_list so the export writes the list back as a list, byte for byte.
Platform pages link each reader's source line at its pinned revision, name the collection file that serves each entry, show launcher records with their lines, name systems with the id beside them and the list they were read from in words. The largest system lists move to pages of their own so a platform page stays under 500 KB.
Gaps: plain numbers with a bar, a badge only for missing required firmware, Files to source as a heading. Cross-reference: counts per platform, one page per platform, one row per upstream project. Exports: gaps listed once, status, category and the serving file in the CSVs and SQLite, the commit in each API envelope, the provenance Wanted list as CSV. Catalog dates in words on the provenance page.
Batocera, KNULLI, Recalbox, RetroBat and RetroDECK hand a libretro core <saves>/<system> at each launch. Each copy lands below every system that runs the core. EmuDeck keeps one unsorted saves/retroarch/saves. The unsupported platforms record why.
load_from: save_dir entries of a libretro build were left out of every
pack. They now go below the platform's save folder (registry
save_directory: RetroArch saves/, Lakka savefiles/, by core), the
manifest marks them root: save, and verify replays the same placement.
Platforms keeping saves per system or per game list them as omitted.
Hashes, link lists, install commands, member tables and long reference
tables leave the site search: the index drops from 21.0 MB (4.88 MB
gzip) to 6.8 MB (1.33 MB gzip). Names and prose stay searchable.
files/?hash= takes a SHA1, MD5, CRC32 or SHA256 and reads one shard of
api/v1/lookup/ (about 22 KB gzip, was 675 KB) listing the collection
card, the platforms that declare the value and the profiles that check
it. files/?sha1= still opens the card, and a sha1- anchor missing from
a page is looked up there, so a card can move between pages.
Excluded blocks are section elements: the search plugin compares
elements by tag, so a div ended at the first nested div.
EmuELEC's ports system has one emulator, `ports`, the dispatch to a
script ports.yaml generates. The scraper now reads each port's engine
(the libretro core handed to emuelecRunEmu.sh with -C, else port_exe),
so devilutionx, sonic2013, soniccd, sonic-mania, reminiscence and
rigelengine are examined. Standalone emulators keep the spelling the
launch code dispatches on instead of invented lowercase forms, and
media players and runtimes go to the overrides' remove_cores.
Each system of the AmberELEC, EmuELEC and KNULLI lists now carries the
cores its ES list offers it, in menu order, under `cores:`.
The install manifest marks each game data file "category": "game_data":
a platform entry only game data profile entries read, or a core file its
profile declares game data. Firmware carries no category. Every manifest
says "categorized": true so the installer can refuse an older list.
generate_pack.py --no-game-data cuts those files from the platform list
and the core profiles before the build, names each one with the cores that
read it as game data, and tags the pack _NoGameData through _narrowings.
verify.py and the pack check take the same cut, so --verify-packs and the
report describe the pack the builder wrote. Modes without a platform
(--emulator, --system alone, --from-md5) and --all-variants refuse it.
Abdessamad Derraz