Each file of a platform list is one row: name, folder, status chip, a short hash on a button that copies it whole, and a details cell. The details hold every declared hash, the size, the served copy and the readers. A reference's role is one word (glue, port, upstream, build) defined once in a legend instead of a phrase after every reference.
Visible words: Batocera 2,433 to 2,332, AmberELEC 1,301 to 1,299, RomM 1,607 to 1,596, RetroArch 2,207 to 2,088, RetroDECK arcade part 2 19,127 to 2,104. Rows weigh more Markdown, so 38 more systems move to pages of their own under the existing budgets.
The installer reads the version the system states in its own file,
without running anything: batocera.version, recalbox.version (a release
only), RetroBat's system/version.info, VERSION_ID in os-release on Lakka
and EmuELEC. When it differs from the version the list was built for, a
line says so before the install and again with the result, and the new
version event carries it for the screen. An unknown version says
nothing, and the install never stops on it.
The run header, the menu, its game data split and g, the plan, the
screen's plan and game data row and both results now divide one tally
of the list the run keeps. Case variants were counted on the run and
missing from the screen's split, g counted the whole list under a head
narrowed by c, and the result left out the data tree files. The wiki
examples come from real runs of 2026-10-27.
One table of roles from the 16 basic colours (accent, success,
warning, failure, muted, strong, selected) read by the full screen and
by the end of a line-mode run. Status words take their role from one
pattern table, the text never changes, and colour is off with NO_COLOR,
TERM dumb or unset, a terminfo entry naming fewer than 8 colours, or an
output that is not a terminal.
Colour goldens keep the escape codes, and a test strips them back to
the text goldens.
--offline given with the variable set is named as the option, and the
runs the screen starts get it only when the user gave it. The first
install page stays under its 400 words, the 3.8 runs skip only the
pack test that needs generate_pack.
The options and environment tables say what --no-input finds and when
it stops, and how the words name RETROBIOS_INSTALL_OFFLINE. A test holds
the options screen to leave out parallel downloads offline.
Long messages scroll with their position, a small window says why the
questions come line by line, one bar rule per width, the folder a
config names sits under it and wraps whole, the help while typing a
filter lists what does not type, the plan names --core and --region,
pc finds the computer setups, rows keep sizes near their names, a
partial result counts once, a quit is said as one, the WSL browser
names drives by letter and No connection names the pack.
The installer knew BIOS files from game data and no count showed it.
The plan, the line menu and the result count them apart for a list that
marks game data, the plan gets a game data row and the menu a g key,
each toggling it in one press, and one sentence says what game data is.
A Termux run named /sdcard and /storage/emulated/0 for one storage, read
saves/<core> as a folder, split a backup path and the restore command
inside their words and named no folder for missing game data. Paths are
spelled as the BIOS folder was named, folders per core are said in
words, the result keeps paths and commands whole, and the game data line
names the folder it goes in.
Started with no job-control shell, a Ctrl-Z stopped the screen and its
launcher for good. The key now stops it only when its process group is
a shell's job, and the bar says why otherwise.
The MinUI family's lists record cores and regions and no system: every
narrowing was refused with a remedy that fetched the same list. Each
option is now refused by the axis missing, with what works, and a pack
names its platform's list only when that list records the axis. Line
mode names what c chooses and skips a question with one answer, and
Options leaves out parallel downloads when nothing is downloaded.
RetroArch's folder question numbered a Batocera SHARE drive and filled
its root. A drive is now offered by its own system's BIOS folder, one
nothing names by its bios folder, and another system's is left out and
named with the options that reach it. A list or pack card setups read
too opens on those setups, in both modes.
Pack and list paths with a control character are refused, the names a
list records, card labels, folders and events pass one filter, and a
folder a configuration names with one is not taken.
A KNULLI card renamed in its menu was read as a Batocera SHARE drive.
KNULLI is now named by about.info first, Batocera by its own hostname,
and a drive two systems fit is said instead of guessed. Runs without
questions see mounted cards as the screen does and stop on two setups.
The card marker table of the wiki is generated.
A step marked github_token: true receives the token. autorun accepts the key only on check_freshness.py, refresh_stale.py and python -m scripts.scraper.* tracked in this repository, refuses it on any other step and in the campaign job. The nightly steps declare it.
A pack's system titles, names and ids are read only without control
characters, and the systems list and the same-choice line go through
screen_text. The --yes row of the option table says it implies
--no-input.
Answers code_audit_17 and tui_audit_10: the folder found after o, SHARE
drive roots, one same-choice command, a counted confirm step in line
mode, counts from the narrowed list, read-only advice without sudo,
systems recorded in packs, Ctrl-Z stopping the whole job, and the
wording, layout and docs items.
Host git only fetches into bare mirrors no sandbox ever sees, https only, with no user or system config and overrides emptying hooks, fsmonitor, ssh and proxy commands and every filter driver the mirror defines. Each build is a git archive of the commit and of each submodule commit from its own mirror. Old working-tree clones are deleted. The core copied out must be a regular file inside the build folder, opened without following links.
make runs on a git archive export of the commit and its submodules, the clone and its .git never bound into the sandbox. Host-side git runs with no user or system config, no hooks, no fsmonitor and the file and ext transports refused.
Runs the jobs of automation/jobs.yml under one host lock, with load and disk guards, one idle retry on a host misread, artifacts computed twice, explicit-path commits in .cache/autorun/worktree, an opt-in push (--push) and a CI circuit breaker. First jobs: nightly refresh chain, large-files asset dry run, disk cleanup and check, weekly bios integrity. install-timers writes systemd user units without enabling them.
The TERM probe test answers the setup question, first-install keeps
its button name on one line and under 400 words, and --page of the
installer doc script is named on the page.
Each line of measurements/<emulator>.jsonl now holds the whole run:
every repetition, core logs, per-frame hashes and raw timings. The gzip
data files, the data schema and the split and join code are gone, and
core_probe --record appends one line. record_version moves to 3.
The seven records are rewritten once: each new line equals its old line
joined with its data file, and rebuilds the first-layout file its id
hashes.
Answers code_audit_16 and tui_audit_9: share drives give their bios
folder, card markers stop at mount points, a model finds its family,
the folder question quits on q, pages move by the rows drawn, and a
folder the installer proposed is created without the guard.
scripts/generate_installer_doc.py rewrites the marked tables of
wiki/installer.md: options from build_parser(), events from EVENT_KEYS,
exit codes from the sys.exit calls, RETROBIOS_PAD values and the keys of
each route from TUI_ROUTES, the one table the bar, the help and the stop
line now read. Prose cells are kept, a row the code gains stops the
script until its text is written, and --check runs in the tests. The
site drops the markers.
The full screen falls back to the line questions where the terminal's
terminfo moves no cursor the ANSI way (vt52, glass terminals), and --tui
names why. The line mode draws no escape code with TERM unset, dumb or
such a terminal. Ctrl-Z typed on the screen stops the run as SIGTSTP
does, the terminal handed back and redrawn on fg. A window too small
names 40x12 and its own size.
Pty tests check the modes, the cursor and the main screen after Ctrl-C,
Ctrl-D, SIGTERM, SIGHUP and Ctrl-Z then fg. Tests from a mutmut run over
the device filter, the card bounds and the WSL paths raise its score
from 62/71 to 71/71. The parser lists its options in the page's order,
with NAME, PATH, NAMES and N as arguments.
First install says where a device name is typed. The key table gives each
pad route its buttons, the --plain claims match the parity work, and the
error event, exit code and --dest rows name the card refusals.
core_probe options --emulator, --subject and --supersedes, the record split into line and sidecar, sync_measurements.py and what the site build compiles from the pin.
Each emulator with records gets a Tested block: claim, result, method, computer, core build and the permalink of its record at the pin. A Measurements page filters every test in the browser from the compact index, and the Data page lists measurements.sqlite with its tables. One SQLite file per emulator is linked from its page. wiki/measurements.md says how a test runs, held to the Start here budgets.
Both workflows fetch the pinned commit alone with git before the build, and the deploy fails without it.
The probe skipped run_cli, accepted option prefixes in its shared options, left three options undocumented and was missing from the published schemas. The worker runs under -I, so the script directory is put back on sys.path before importing common.
installer.md: one card reading, AmberELEC and EmuELEC cards, device names in the setup list and the line menu, the copy browser on the first mounted card, offline endings, the refused --dest in the exit table. first-install.md: a handheld found by its name, Finished with files missing.
Abdessamad Derraz