game_dat_importer and arcade_parent_importer each kept an exact-text
copy of write_if_changed, so a redump refresh rewrote every catalog for
its fetched date alone. Both now use artifacts.write_if_changed, which
treats fetched as a timestamp. A No-Intro rebuild still rewrites its
catalogs, since asset_updated_at moves with it, so check_freshness keeps
reading a fetched date no older than the pack.
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.
mame2000, mame2003 and mame2003-plus carry a DAT their code moved past. Their parents and BIOS sets now come from src/driver.c and src/drivers/ at the pin, named by the src tree sha. The DAT is still read to report gaps. FBNeo DATs are read one namespace each, console sets keyed by driver. A BIOS with no dumped ROM is no longer listed.
The games index now names, per arcade core, the game sets that load no
BIOS set and every BIOS set, so a set on a card the DAT does not know is
told apart from one that needs nothing. Each board default core of a rom
folder gets its own fallback set, and index.json maps every folder name
a setup uses to its systems, for a games folder on a computer.
Abdessamad Derraz