The builder keeps a held regional fallback when the requested file is
missing (since 2026-10-17), and the comment beside the manifest's
omissions still said the opposite. A file the builder holds but the
manifest cannot download sat in omitted_files counted unheld, so the
installer kept a fallback the pack drops. Such an omission now carries
held: true and narrow() counts it held, as the builder does.
After --all-variants, --verify-packs printed "hashes checked during the
build" for the platform-only, truth and required-only packs and compared
none of them, so one missing a file its narrowed list requires passed.
Each pack is now held to the platform list narrowed the way it was built:
source and required_only, read from its name, reach the baseline, the
region grouping and the replay of the core extras.
LRPS2 reads pcsx2/resources/GameIndex.yaml through its data directory
and declares no file entry for it, so the truth entry other cores build
named armsx2 and yaps2 alone and hash_conflict missed LRPS2's copy. A
core whose data directory holds a file at an entry's path now folds in
as a reader with the cached copy's hashes, unless the profile lists what
it reads under that tree (yaps2, pcee2).
verify resolved offline, so a release asset absent from bios/ and the
cache read as missing while an online build fetched and packed it. verify
now reads the database record of the registered path and counts such a
declaration present, listed as fetched at build time. --offline keeps the
old count, and the offline pipeline passes it to its verify step.
A core extra resolved by name shipped on existence platforms even when
the core's own size check turns the copy away. The RetroPie pack carried
the 128 KB Apple IIGS ROM as Basilisk II's ROM (min 512 KB). The builder,
the manifest and verify now read validation.core_size_refusal, which
accepts a copy any version of the same profile slot takes.
np2pi reads 0x4000 bytes of scsi.rom as the SCSI BIOS (cbus/scsiio.c:
208-233). The only 16 KB copy of that name is Clock Signal's Apple II
card ROM, which the name step served and the RetroPie manifest installed.
The entry now carries unsourceable: and np2pi falls back on its stub.
NanoBoyAdvance opens general.bios_path, default bios.bin (src/platform/core/src/config.cpp:36 at 3bb6f478). gba_bios.bin is the path ROCKNIX's config.toml sets, recorded under launchers: in rocknix.yml.
Without the alias the entry met only PCem's and QEMU's bios.bin, 64 and 128 KB, which BIOSLoader refuses (bios.cpp:17-48). verify counted it held by name, so the launcher layer left it alone and the ROCKNIX pack gained PCem's image. A hashless entry whose every same-named copy fails its size is now not held, and the gba_bios.bin ROCKNIX declares settles it.
_holding_members kept every same-named copy when the best held nothing,
so galgames.zip, a lone assembler listing, resolved by name for mame,
groovymame and mame4droid-2024, and awbios.zip for mame4droid. Such a
copy now resolves as hash_mismatch.
mame2003_plus declared its contents by name only, while fileio.c:1031-1040
loads a member by CRC when the name is absent. The 61 members now carry
the CRC their driver declares, so stvbios, megatech and the six ZN sets
keep matching the archives the collection holds.
Dolphin and its forks map the Brazilian disc country code B, and the
SYSCONF countries of the Americas, to NTSC-U (DiscIO/Enums.cpp), whose
boot ROM is read from GC/USA. Tagged north-america alone, the IPL a
Brazilian disc boots left a --region brazil,europe pack. GC/USA/IPL.bin
in six profiles and triforce's IPL_TRI.bin now carry latin-america.
validate_pr.py built its folder advice from platform lists alone, so a
file only an emulator profile declares got the generic
bios/Manufacturer/Console/ advice. Profiles now feed the same table
through each entry's system, and the contributing guide says the
command answers where a file goes.
jp, us, kr and gb were aliases but au was unknown, and the first
spelling offered for it was auto, which means world. Every territory
of the region tree now answers to its ISO 3166-1 code, in the build
scripts and in the installer, whose SHA-256 is pinned again.
verify, generate_pack and cross_reference took -p and -t, slots, generate_truth, diff_truth, export_native and refresh_data_dirs refused them. A test reads every add_argument call.
A fork's clone has origin alone. Pushed to the fork's main, the commit
left origin/main...HEAD empty and --changed reported nothing with rc 0.
When no remote names the project, its main is fetched and compared, and
a fetch that fails is an error.
RetroArch defaults system_directory to :\system, the folder of retroarch.exe (platform_win32.c), for the installer as for the portable archive. %APPDATA%\RetroArch holds only a fallback retroarch.cfg.
The pack README's one-line install was written per platform: ROCKNIX and MiSTer had none, EmuDeck's Windows edition was told to open Konsole, and RomM users were sent to library/bios/ whatever their firmware template. The automatic section now follows each platform's install.detect systems, the EmuDeck and RomM manual steps name every layout, and the download page lists EmuDeck under Windows and macOS.
_foreign_tree compared owner tokens by equality, so cxbx-reloaded-2023
read bios/Other/cxbx-reloaded/ as another emulator's tree and the
case-folded fallback served xemu's encrypted EEPROM. The leading whole
words of a profile key now name its own tree too. Across every profile
entry this moves cxbx-reloaded-2023's EEPROM.bin to the decrypted dump,
turns eight name matches on the same files into path matches, and gives
solarus-2.0.0 the Solarus tree's gamecontrollerdb.txt.
Without jsonschema the step printed only the missing module, and the run then read COMPLETE while PR validation runs the same check. The skip now names the install command and the PR check.
The Batocera example is dated and carries the Not installable line and the closing list of files the collection does not hold, which every Batocera run prints. Disk sizes are no longer hand-kept: the run prints its size. The no-platform case describes the menu install.sh makes possible by handing over the terminal.
The pack integrity check rebuilt the core extras with no taken paths and
tested presence alone, so it credited core files at paths the platform's
own file holds and printed a core count the builder contradicted. It now
replays the builder's placement through packextras.hidden_extras and
compares each placed member with the copy the builder resolves.
archive_members scanned the whole file list on every call, and callers ask once per entry of the same profile: 38 million entries walked in one verify --all over mame.yml. Lists of 64 entries or more are now indexed by archive once (held so the id is not reused, indexed again when the length changes), members still read from the entries at each call. archive_members drops from 2.30 s to 0.14 s tottime under the profiler. verify --all (text and --json), slots --json and the retroarch manifest are byte-identical.
Run from another directory, validate_pr.py read no database, platform or
profile and reported every file as referenced by no platform and outside
bios/. It now moves to the root as verify.py does, reading the files
named from where they were typed.
The platform's systems are known once its config is loaded. The filter ran inside the build, after the output lock and a refresh of every data directory, and ended on a WARNING with exit 1. It is now a usage error before any work.
Without Python, install.ps1 at a console now offers to run winget install Python.Python.3.12, rereads PATH from the registry and carries on. The Store's python.exe placeholder fails the version check like a missing Python.
A browser upload into bios/ lands on a fork and opens the pull request, and CI already hashes the file and names its folder. CONTRIBUTING asked for a fork, a clone, five packages and the whole suite, and promised a PR comment that a fork's read-only token cannot post. The issue chooser links the upload page.
The check ended on the last platform's line: a failing pack was named only above its own errors. It now names every failing pack on stderr at the end, as the build path does, or counts the packs found OK.
The quick install block gains the PowerShell form that passes options and a link to the installer page. The collection size uses the GB format of the download table and the site, counts get separators, and the sentences about RetroArch's existence check and the method describe the code instead of judging documentation.
CommentsSayWhy read three scripts while 22 comments in 13 other files
named the next statement. They are removed or replaced by the reason,
and the test reads every tracked script and install.py.
Step 2a advanced mame.yml's core_version and upstream_commit to a new
release and left the device ROM sets on the previous one. A plain run
that moves the pin now fetches that release's listxml into .cache/dats
and runs the device merge, which checks version and commit itself.
asset_candidates fell back to the bare name when no .gitignore line carried it: every online build asked large-files for aes.zip and five others and printed an HTTP 404 per name, pointing at an upload that never existed. The tests that fetch now register their names.
The acquisition report never read a profile, so XM7's required DICROM.ROM
sat among 2 287 targets at the rank of dumps no core reads. A missing
entry that a profile reads and the collection lacks is now listed first
with the profile, matched by hash or, for a hashless entry with a size,
by name and size. 29 entries on the current snapshots.
sms_cart_region_detect returns REGION_USA for any cartridge outside its
CRC list whose header is not Japanese, so Genesis Plus GX and its two
forks open bios_U.sms for Australian and Brazilian cartridges as well.
Tagged north-america and europe only, --region australia,japan dropped
it from the pack. The tag now adds latin-america and oceania.
Without Python the bootstrap told every system to run sudo apt install python3. It now reads Termux, macOS and /etc/os-release to name pkg, xcode-select, apt, dnf, pacman, zypper or apk, and in Termux offers to run pkg install python, which needs no root.
A crc32 and a size can be met by crafted bytes, so a remote download
matched on them could land in bios/. verify_content now requires every
sha256, sha1 and md5 the entry declares to match, and an entry declaring
none is reported as not verifiable from the network and nothing is
written. crc32 and size still find a file the database already holds.
With no platform detected, a machine running standalone emulators (ES-DE with DuckStation and PCSX2) was offered RetroArch's folder. The installer now fills the emulator folders of the standalone copies list that exist here, from the EmuDeck then RetroArch file lists, asking first at a terminal.
check_crypto_validation keeps its answer keyed by the file and keys file as compute_hashes keys them (path, inode, size, mtime, ctime). verify --all ran the verifiers 35 times for 5 files (0.88 s), now 5 times (0.13 s). verify --all --json output is byte-identical.
The guard spelled out every name it forbids and skipped its own file.
The names are now assembled from parts, the file is checked like any
other, and the generated-page filter reads the site's own list of
local note directories.
The buildbot builds the stella core from stella-emu/stella master
(src/os/libretro), not from stella2014 code, and stella2023 claimed the
stella name. stella.yml now documents that tree at 2c3d7023: the KidVid
tapes are read from a stella folder under the save directory, loose or
in KidVidAudio.zip, and played. stella2023 keeps its own name only.
mame2000 opens hiscore.dat, history.dat and mameinfo.dat from IMAMEBASEPATH, the content directory (src/libretro/fileio.c:1002-1014, libretro.c:1044-1052). mame2014 and mame2015 open hiscore.dat through emu_file with no search path, the working directory (src/emu/hiscore.c:330-337, fileio.c:141-143). With no load_from the entries claimed system/ and the packs shipped files neither core opens there. ANoteOutsideTheSystemDirCarriesLoadFrom holds libretro notes and load_from together.
ares finds firmware by sha256 (desktop-ui/settings/firmware.cpp:116-136) and names no file. Its FDS entry (RP2C33-01, crc32 1c7ae5d5) was labelled disksys.rom, the name nestopia, fceumm and four more cores read for RP2C33A-01A: ROCKNIX and EmuDeck got ares's revision at disksys.rom. It now carries MAME's member name rp2c33-01.bin.
The LaserActive v1.05 entry, the PAC-S10, PAC-N10, PAC-N1, PCE-LP1 and Neo Geo Pocket aliases are names RetroBat's launcher passes (Ares.Generator.cs:435-555): mega-ld.cpp:16-17 holds only the v1.04 US and v1.02 Japan hashes. RetroBat declares each name in its own list.
AHashScanLabelNamesNoOtherDump compares every found_by: content label with other profiles' entries of that name through the hash indexes.
Ten profile notes graded a .info (correct, accurate, still, missing, omits). Each now says what the file declares and what the code reads. test_no_grade_on_another_projects_file reads every profile line that names a .info, core-info or System.dat.
Abdessamad Derraz