Windows rules ran under WSL with C:\ paths read as relative and no Windows variables, so nothing was found and a forced RetroBat install went to ~/bios inside the distribution.
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.
Manifests list each data directory's source archive and the hash of
every file; the installer rebuilds the tree from the archive and keeps
only the files whose hash matches.
The RetroArch list is folded for Windows and macOS. Its manifest
now carries the names a case-keeping directory also needs, and the
installer adds them after probing the BIOS directory.
The installer looked for retroarch.exe in C:\RetroArch-Win64 and
Program Files\RetroArch only, so a RetroArch under Program Files\
RetroArch-Win64, in a Steam library on another drive, or in an
installed ES-DE's Emulators folder went undetected. All three are
searched; Steam libraries come from Steam's own library list.
install.py held a local it never read and, since the registry path
rules, a loop variable shadowing the platform module, so the py38
ruff gate the installer is held to failed. Both are fixed, and the
suite reads the two rules from the syntax tree since CI has no ruff.
The registry declares where each platform keeps its BIOS and every
manifest publishes it, but the installer detects before it fetches
any manifest and never had RetroPie, BizHawk, RetroBat's paths, or
EmuDeck's default folder. It now carries the registry's path rules,
held equal to the registry by a test.
The registry names one path per standalone copy for every platform,
but each manifest places the file its own way, so the installer
looked where the pack had put nothing and copied nothing: EmuDeck's
aes_keys.txt for Azahar, Batocera's switch/prod.keys. Each manifest
copy now names its source, which the installer validates and reads.
Abdessamad Derraz