RetroBat's Pico8 generator runs pico8.exe from AppConfig.GetFullPath:
the emulatorLauncher.cfg key, else the first existing of four folders of
the RetroBat install. The registry describes that search
(emulators_directory) and the manifest writes such a file as
root: emulators. The installer places it only when the BIOS folder sits
beside RetroBat's launcher config and the config does not move the
folder, and names it no_emulators_directory otherwise. Packs skip it as
they skip root: roms.
The PICO-8 0.2.7 Windows build (pico8.exe, SDL2.dll) is collected from
the archive.org copy of pico-8_0.2.7_windows.zip, its pico8.dat being
the 0.2.7 one already held.
A platform that binds part of a standalone layout leaves the entries no
binding covers in a folder outside the BIOS tree: they are no longer
packed at the BIOS root, and the manifest names them (root: emulator,
outside_bios_folder). A launcher that executes a profile's file binds
the program folder: in the BIOS tree, below the roms directory a registry
entry names (root: roms, installed into the folder holding the BIOS
folder), or nowhere a pack reaches. A moved entry resolves by its own
path as well as by its destination.
uae4all gains kick.rom and rom.key in its working directory and loses a
not_bundled_on that named Recalbox, which runs uae4all-rpi. lexaloffle
declares that its programs read beside their executable, lists the
Windows build RetroBat runs and the pico8_dyn ROCKNIX runs on x86_64.
--installed-cores treated a core with no profile as one that reads no
file, and dropped dc/dc_boot.bin for parallel_dc without a word (issue 87).
Such a core is now named, and the firmware its RetroArch .info declares is
kept. core_names lists every core a platform runs, so a profile with no
file is not reported unknown.
The manifest names the cores that read a tree no platform system
declares, every reader of a shared tree included. An install for the
games of a card keeps such a tree only when its plan runs one of them:
a SNES game on ArkOS (snes9x) no longer takes FBNeo's cheats and samples.
A system no setup names a core for keeps every core's tree.
The name step reused one variable for paths and for (path, md5, size)
tuples, the standalone copies reused targets inside its own loop, and
the WSL state read as object. Ten baseline entries no longer occur.
--for-games --required-only on a dArkOS card from a computer kept every
file of the list: --dest skipped the card's detection, so its rom
folders were never found. The games part beside the BIOS folder now
names them. The manifest marks a data tree every core runs without
(optional), and --required-only leaves it out: one GBA and one SNES game
took FBNeo's cheats and samples, 3,472 files no game opened.
_pack_version took the text after the last underscore of the pack name.
AmberELEC's prerelease-20261019_1835 read as 1835 and the page would
announce a version gap that does not exist. The site now removes the
platform part the builder writes (platform_pack_prefix).
--emulator handy --required-only removed the empty ZIP, printed the
path it had just removed and exited 1, while verify reported 0/0 OK and
exited 0. The builder now says no file is needed and succeeds.
MiSTer and BizHawk declare cores: []. --region, --one-per-slot and
--no-game-data read the profiles of the cores a platform runs, so their
packs and manifests withdrew nothing under a name and README that said
they had. generate_pack and verify now refuse the flags for a named
platform and leave it out under --all.
A mistyped --system said '--list-systems lists all 579' and the listing
prints 532: the hint counted every spelling across profiles, and
system_index merges the ones that differ in case or separator before
printing. Both verify.py and generate_pack.py now pass that count to
suggest_names, whose listed parameter exists for this case.
Six helpers that write a pack member declared zipfile.ZipFile while every
call site also passes the PackRecord the pipeline builds emulator and
narrowed packs with. mypy reported the 19 call sites as arg-type errors.
With the union in the signature a helper that calls writestr or write
without its isinstance branch is a union-attr error in CI, instead of an
AttributeError in the pipeline's record pass.
_ships and _emulator_ships resolved without the data directories, the
archive index and the slot override the builder uses: 400 platform
declarations and 178 emulator entries read as missing while the pack
held them.
RetroPie was the only platform with status: archived, which kept it out
of verify --all, slots, the pipeline and list_platforms unless
--include-archived was typed. release_pack already decides which packs a
release publishes and the installer serves every platform, so the status
set nothing apart. The field, its schema entry and the flag are gone, and
RetroPie is covered by every full run like any other platform.
generate_manifest called slot_choices, and pack_overrides called it again with the same five arguments. pack_overrides takes the choices when the caller holds them. Measured on generate_pack.py --all --manifest --offline: 48 calls and 7.0 s in slot_choices before, 24 calls and 4.3 s after (wall 45.7 s and 42.4 s, one run each on a loaded host). The manifests written are identical.
A pack folded for Windows and macOS keeps one spelling of each case twin. Extracted on a Steam Deck or Linux, the core asking for the other spelling finds nothing, and only the installer added it. Where the platform also runs on a filesystem that keeps case, the README now lists each spelling left out beside the one it holds: 12 for EmuDeck and 10 for RetroArch, the manifest's case_variants.
On a platform that writes bios/ in front of its destinations (RetroDECK, AmberELEC, EmuELEC), a core extra was grouped, dropped and held under its bare destination while the platform's declaration of the same file used bios/<name>. Beetle PSX's scph5501.bin was kept by the --region japan pack while the declaration was dropped and the installer dropped the path. extra_region_key keys every extra with the platform's declared root, in the builder, the manifest selection, verify's replay and the omissions. The same key gives the declared entries the systems of the core files at their path: every --system case of RetroDECK differed between pack and installer before, none does now.
A tarball tree was announced at its extracted size: yaps2 at 6.5 MB for a 21.2 MB download, Cemu's game profiles at 9.9 KB for 21.4 MB. refresh_data_dirs records the size of each archive it downloads (a tree current from before is measured, not refetched), the install lists carry it as archive_size, and the plan, the menu and the data event count it.
Each part was built alone: the Other_Cores part never saw the platform's destinations and each part had its own case fold. RetroDECK's parts wrote bios/SGB1.sfc/ members beside the file bios/SGB1.sfc, RetroBat's wrote 21 openmsx/ twins of openMSX/ files, and a path two systems declare got each system's file. The full pack is now built in memory first and a part writes a declared file or core extra only where the full pack writes the same bytes.
A path declared twice, once unpinned and once with a pin the copy misses: the builder wrote excluded over the file it shipped, in either order of the two systems. It now counts the path untested, as verify does, and lists no exclusion.
Batocera and KNULLI write the image name, not the board, to the card's board file (post-image-script.sh). The target scraper now records each board's images from Config.in, the target lists carry them, and the installer maps a card's image to its board. KNULLI's boot/knulli.board is read too.
The README, the setup pages and adding-a-platform tied archived to a
scraping schedule and a CI matrix that do not exist. Archived keeps a
platform out of the runs that cover every platform unless
--include-archived is passed.
Step 5 builds the --required-only, --no-game-data, --region, --target
and --system packs of every platform in memory and compares their paths
with verify run under the same narrowing. verify_platform gains
required_only, generate_pack a record mode. A run samples three regions,
targets and systems per platform (155 packs, about 3 minutes);
--full-narrowings compares all 1,150 (25 minutes). A test fails when
_narrowings() gains a dimension that is neither compared nor exempted.
A platform pack carried only the trees its own systems declared, so for_platforms reached RetroArch, Lakka and RetroPie alone and every other platform running blueMSX, FBNeo or Dolphin got no tree. The pack, the install list and the pipeline's tree members now add the trees of the libretro cores the platform runs, below the system directory and build folder the core reads, unless the platform installs or never opens them. A platform entry the manifest resolved into a carried tree becomes that tree's member, which the installer can fetch: AmberELEC and EmuELEC no longer hold 192 blueMSX machine configs back. stonesoup reads its tree beside the content and pcee2 compiles its resources in, so neither tree reaches a BIOS pack.
The pack suffix test of b20d65d12 missed the platform --system packs, which carry their system after it (_BIOS_Pack_Playstation.zip): their manifest was no longer injected and install.py refused them. A pack name holds _BIOS_Pack, then an optional tag, then .zip.
verify_and_finalize_packs took every ZIP of the directory, so the launcher archives build_port.py writes to the same dist/ were judged as packs, failed, and were rewritten with a manifest after build_port had printed their hashes. Every name the builder gives ends in _BIOS_Pack.zip, and only those are taken.
Raze lists three sized BLOOD.RFF versions and a fourth it takes without a check, the shareware RFF the collection holds. The Batocera pack printed two DISCREPANCY lines for it that verify never showed. A slot with an unchecked sibling now accepts any copy for that core, in the validation rules and in _matches_an_alternative. When every version refuses a copy, the message names all accepted values instead of the first.
Messages in check_freshness, generate_pack, common, profile_sync and fileless_audit named commands as export_native.py --platform x, which fails from the repository root. They now read python scripts/<name>.py like the rest of the report.
install.py took --list-platforms, generate_pack.py --list and verify.py
nothing. Both tools now take --list-platforms and print the same list
from common.py. generate_pack.py keeps --list (finding 80).
--all --system built every pack asked for and exited 1 on a platform
that has no such system. The scope is now decided before the lock:
skipped under --all, refused under --platform (finding 15).
Abdessamad Derraz