minarch hands every core SDCARD_PATH/Bios/<TAG> as its system directory
and opens no file in it. The scrapers read each pak's launch.sh (core,
tag, devices), each device's core makefile (the project a library is
built from: MyMinUI's dosbox_libretro.so is dosbox-pure) and the minarch
statement, at a pinned commit. The installer recognises the card from
.system/version.txt and refuses a folder inside it.
AmberELEC, PAN4ELEC and EmuELEC detection now installs their own lists
at /storage/roms, the root those lists are written against; KNULLI its
own list at /userdata/bios. JELOS, KOLOS, UnofficialOS and Arch R keep
RetroArch's list with the folder their retroarch.cfg names.
Each OS publishes Batocera's systems dict (knulli-systems, and
batocera-systems at AmberELEC's newest prerelease commit and EmuELEC v4.8),
read with the shared parser. Cores come from each OS's own ES list.
AmberELEC and EmuELEC declare neogeo/ and ports/ beside bios/ from
/storage/roms, so their packs extract there and core_destination puts
core files under bios/.
DraStic keeps its BIOS in its private data and Flycast in Android/data,
which Termux cannot write on Android 11 and later. An installed one is now
named with the files not copied, and a writable Flycast folder is a
standalone copy target.
AmberELEC, EmuELEC, JELOS, KOLOS, UnofficialOS, ArchR, PAN4ELEC, dArkOS,
RetroOZ, spruceOS, CrossMix-OS, Onion, Allium, Koriki, MiyooCFW and plumOS
are found by what their builds write, named as they name themselves, and
installed to the system_directory of their RetroArch config, which follows
ArkOS and dArkOS to a second card. TrimUI stock, MinUI and a plumOS build
without a known folder are named and not installed to. Two unrelated
systems matching stop a run without a terminal.
Both branches extracted RetroBat's Flycast BiosPath: value_folders
already produces the record, so the dedicated extractor is dropped and
its test reads the generic one.
RetroArch_installCores (emuDeckRetroArch.sh) downloads flycast, mame,
melonds, mgba, mupen64plus_next, ppsspp and scummvm as libretro cores
next to their standalone apps. Listed as standalone only, they got one
layout: once Flycast's standalone files moved to flycast/bios/, the
libretro core lost dc/airlbios.zip, dc/naomi2.zip and dc/segasp.zip.
The scraper now writes them as dual_mode_cores.
DraStic opens nds_bios_arm9.bin, nds_bios_arm7.bin and nds_firmware.bin and checks their size. Its nine aliases are in none of its binaries, and neither platform launcher passes them: ROCKNIX links the two BIOS names from its bios folder, and RetroPie runs DraStic from $md_conf_root/nds/drastic (drastic.sh:48), now a passes_path record. The collection answers DraStic's names with its DS dumps in generate_db, where repository names belong.
The launcher layer now reads the Saturn emulators whose option replaces
the default path, DeSmuME's pair and firmware, the melonDS DSi files and
NAND region, jzIntv arguments, BlastEm's SetBiosPath, Dolphin, Raine,
GSplus, the DOSBox and capsimg copies, Tsugaru's folder chain, RPCS3,
EKA2L1, BizHawk's GB switches and the folders that MAME, FBNeo, Snes9x,
Flycast, ScummVM, XRoar, XM6 Pro, ArcadeDuck, Demul and B-Syndrome get.
Every line of these generators that names the bios folder must be read
by a record or a stated exception, or the scrape stops.
standalone_path is relative to the directories a standalone build
resolves it against, now declared per profile (standalone_directories).
A launcher record that links or passes a whole folder of the BIOS tree
under one of them gives that folder, and platform_layouts rebases the
standalone view once for the builder, the manifest, verify and slots
(launchers.standalone_root, common.standalone_destination).
Flycast on RetroPie and ROCKNIX reads bios/dc, on EmuDeck
bios/flycast/bios, on Batocera (FLYCAST_BIOS_PATH) and RetroBat
(Dreamcast.BiosPath) bios/dc. The ROCKNIX, Batocera and RetroBat
scrapers now record the patched data directory, the environment
variable and the setting that say so.
emulatorLauncher writes a BIOS path into an emulator's configuration
only when the file exists: string x = Path.Combine(bios, "name");
if (File.Exists(x)) ini.WriteValue(section, key, x). The extractor now
records each such write as a fixed_name launcher record, with the
enclosing if and early-return conditions, and a key that receives the
bios folder itself as passes_path. A path reassigned before the check,
or a write under a loop or an else, is not read.
Generators read at 48cdc616: KegaFusion (SCD and 32X keys, GenesisBIOS
given the folder), Jgenesis, MelonDS (DS), Mupen64, Project64, mGBA.
The RetroBat paragraph of the Kega Fusion profile now lives in the
launcher layer.
EmuDeck's macOS build reads ~/.config/EmuDeck/settings.sh like the Linux one (functions/all.sh:3-4,24 and vars.sh:2 at dddb3022). The settings and ~/Emulation/bios rules now run on darwin too.
RomM 5.4 reads each platform's firmware where filesystem.structure.firmware
in config.yml says, bios/{platform} by default, and suggests {platform}/bios
for a {platform}/roms library (rommapp/romm 5.4.0,
backend/config/config_manager.py:58,101-109,205-225,564-568,1105-1124).
The installer only wrote bios/<platform>/. It now reads the template from
config.yml beside the library, takes --romm-firmware when that file is
elsewhere, refuses a platform-first library with no template, and detects
RomM by /romm/config/config.yml too.
No Batocera build writes /etc/batocera-version: batocera-system.mk:21-22
(batocera.linux 38845725, unchanged since batocera-30) writes
/usr/share/batocera/batocera.version. Knulli (knulli-linux 57afa662) adds
OS_NAME=knulli to os-release, writes /usr/share/knulli/knulli.version and
removes /usr/share/batocera, and no Knulli source writes /etc/knulli-release.
Neither was detected. A Knulli board is named and not narrowed by
Batocera's per-board lists, and an unlisted board is named.
muOS runs RetroArch on a config copied from its default, which reads
/run/muos/storage/bios, bound to MUOS/bios on the second card when that
card holds one, and loads cores from /opt/muos/share/core (MustardOS/internal
f41f4a89, script/control/retroarch.sh:8-20, script/device/bind.sh:116-150,
retroarch.default.cfg:2806,3151). The installer wrote to /mnt/mmc/MUOS/bios
and --installed-cores found no core. The config now decides both.
functions/all.ps1:4-14 (emudeck-we 037460ef) reads the APPDATA
settings.ps1, else the one under the profile, and takes C:\Emulation when
neither names a folder. Only the first was read and a forced platform fell
back to %USERPROFILE%\Emulation\bios. A network install names its share
through $VolName (JSONtoPS1.ps1:166-172), and a UTF-16 settings file is
decoded.
RetroBat.exe writes its folder to HKCU\SOFTWARE\RetroBat
LatestKnownInstallPath on every start (retrobat-executable 702da66a,
Program.cs:57 and 99, RegistryTools.cs:15-50). Only C:\RetroBat and the
profile folder were looked at, so an install on D: was missed and a forced
--platform retrobat wrote into C:\RetroBat\bios. The value is read
through winreg, or reg.exe under WSL, before the fixed folders.
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).
RetroPie's YAML listed no standalone_cores, so every package was laid
out as a libretro core and the standalone files of amiberry, dolphin,
hatari, mame and ppsspp never reached the pack. Packages without the
lr- prefix (bar the retroarch frontend) are now standalone, and names
shipped both ways are dual-mode.
The scraper reads each component's prepare, launcher and functions scripts at the components commit the BIOS list comes from, and the presets they copy: the fixed paths set_setting_value writes (melonDS seven, xemu three, Dolphin GBA), the folders handed over, the dir_prep links (LRPS2 pcsx2/bios back to bios/, Dolphin and PrimeHack GC regions under saves/), package copies into bios/, RetroArch core options naming a file (pcsx2_bios, DuckStation per region), XRoar romlists, the PICO-8 exec and the RPCS3 and Vita3K firmware downloads.
platforms/retrodeck.yml is regenerated at fcd0d729: only the launchers section is new.
The scraper walks each package's functions the way RetroPie runs them in one shell (assignments, arrays, for loops, brace expansion, $md_id, calls into other packages) and records every link, copy, move and setting that names $biosdir, the addEmulator flags (sdltrs -romfile3), the BIOS read outside $biosdir (basilisk --rom, gngeopi -B) and the launch scripts that exit without their file (fs-uae kick13.rom, reicast dc_boot.bin).
Each package also gets a package record with its rp_module_repo and the systems it registers, which maps a package to the build it compiles. The schema gains package, repo, systems and the moves and package kinds. platforms/retropie.yml is regenerated at 46128cd2: only the launchers section is new.
The scraper parses the configgen generators with ast at the pinned tag: DuckStation and its legacy build, Hatari, xemu, melonDS, mupen64plus 64DD, x16emu, GSplus, and the o2em and neocd core options. An extractor that no longer recognises its code raises instead of writing an empty list.
The scraper declared every standalone package launched both ways,
reasoning that RetroArch carries every libretro core. package.mk says
otherwise: it adds ARMSX2 as armsx2-sa only (add_emu_core ps2 armsx2
armsx2-sa true), so the libretro build's pcsx2/resources entries
reached ROCKNIX's list as armsx2-sa files the standalone installs
itself. An emulator is now dual-mode only when package.mk also adds it
as a retroarch core: ten of the 63 standalone names.
100 emulator names the two platforms run had no profile, so their packs carried nothing for them. Each was read from the platform's own launcher or scriptmodule: the same program as an existing profile takes the name in cores:, a different build gets its own profile read from that version, a launcher or self-contained game goes to remove_cores, and the rest are new profiles written from their source or shipped binary. The files they need that the collection lacked are collected from the upstream distributions. Bungie and splitwolf trees are read by path and stay out of dedup.
--standalone-copies named Linux and Windows folders for Azahar's aes_keys.txt and boot9.bin and Flycast's dc_boot.bin and dc_nvmem.bin, and nothing for macOS, where both emulators read a fixed folder: ~/Library/Application Support/Azahar/sysdata (common_paths.h:36,61) and ~/Library/Application Support/Flycast/data (osx-main.mm:83-101). A test now requires a macOS folder on every copy.
The buildbot publishes .so cores for OpenDingux (mips32, its beta and RS-90 builds), RetroFW, MiyooCFW and webOS (armv7a, aarch64), 7 to 206 cores each. None was a target, so a handheld or TV user could not narrow a pack or an install to the board. They are scraped now, with opendingux, retrofw, miyoo and webos as aliases.
EmuHawk finds every firmware by SHA1 against FirmwareDatabase.FirmwareRecords, and its cores are its own builds. The registry and the scraper both listed libretro cores whose systems overlap BizHawk's, so the pack shipped Clock Signal, O2EM, FBNeo, VICE and Citra files into Firmware/ that EmuHawk never reads. Both lists are now empty, as MiSTer's are: the database alone decides.
Six platforms are read from a branch: System.dat, batocera-systems.json, checkBIOS.sh, the MiSTer BiosDB, the RetroPie scriptmodules and the RetroDECK component manifests. Their YAML named the branch, so the native export patched whatever the branch had become since the scrape. Each scraper now resolves the branch head once, reads every file at that commit and writes it into source. The export follows a recorded tarball and a recorded tree as it already followed a raw file URL.
RomM lists a platform's firmware folder without descending (base_handler.py:1002, recursive=False) and EmulatorJS writes the chosen file, or each zip member, under its bare name. 543 files of the RomM pack sat below a folder where no core could read them. The registry now marks RomM's folder flat, and such files are omitted with the reason below_platform_folder in the manifest and the installer.
RomM merges a nightly core map into the stable one when netplay is on, so it launches azahar, bsnes and genesis_plus_gx_wide, which the inherited EmulatorJS list left out. The scraper now reads both maps from the tagged frontend source and fails if either is missing. The cited mednafen_pce mapping is at index.ts:481-482 in 5.4.0.
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.
BizHawk reads the Firmware folder next to EmuHawk wherever the archive was extracted. The installer looked in ~/.config/BizHawk/Firmware, which no build reads, and wrote there when nothing was found.
The scraper skipped RetroArch's own EmuScripts installer, so no libretro core's files reached the EmuDeck pack: np2kai, neocd and every core checkBIOS.sh does not name. RetroArch now stays in the list, as in RetroPie's.
Batocera, RetroBat, Recalbox and ROCKNIX offer some emulators both as a
libretro core and standalone. Filed as standalone only, the libretro
layout was dropped: libretro Dolphin had no dolphin-emu/Sys/GC files.
Platforms now name dual-mode emulators and each gets both layouts.
RomM's verify_file_hashes compares the size, then md5, sha1 or crc. We
compared md5 alone, so a fixture entry with one mistyped hash was left out
of the pack RomM would accept it from. The rule is declared in romm.yml
and read by verify, the builder and the manifest.
Lakka builds LIBRETRO_CORES minus the exclusions each project, device
and GLES image adds. Without a list, --target refused Lakka and its RPi1
pack carried firmware for cores the image does not build.
Abdessamad Derraz