The RetroArch pack lands in RetroArch Android's system folder, where MediaProvider indexed 3 842 images, sounds and videos (552 MB) into the gallery and music apps: a folder holding .nomedia is hidden with every folder below it (FileUtils.java:1587-1629, ModernMediaScanner.java:845-846, a183e2b9). A pack whose platform files an Android target, unfiltered or built for one, carries an empty .nomedia. pack_files counts it and the integrity check takes it for a marker.
batocera-systems lists bios/saves/dolphin-emu/Triforce/segaboot.gcm, so the pack folder for the save directory is userdata-saves/. validate_schemas refuses a pack folder the BIOS tree already uses.
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.
generate_pack.py held six responsibilities in 4744 lines. Five move out
in dependency order, so nothing above reaches back down: destinations,
core extras, resolution with its storage tiers, the notes shipped inside
a pack, and the pack verifier. generate_pack.py keeps the build and the
command line, and re-exports the rest.
Two things the move surfaced. The offline switch was a module global the
command line assigned, which a re-export would have copied and frozen at
False; it is set through a call now and not re-exported. And a facade
placed after the entry point binds too late: importing the module worked,
running it did not, so the manifest run died on a name the tests never
exercised because tests import.
Verified against the previous revision on frozen inputs: every generated
artefact is identical, save the catalogue that embeds hashes of files
carrying a build timestamp.
Abdessamad Derraz