RetroPie clones amadvance/advancemame at the branch tip with no
revision (scriptmodules/emulators/advmame.sh:16, 39-41 at 427e762), so
advmame is profiled at 96237a5 (v5.0-484), built_by retropie and held
by pin_follows. RetroPie's advmame now resolves to it, advancemame
keeping EmuELEC, AmberELEC and Recalbox.
The MAME workflow at 96237a5: 28 BIOS roots registered in
mame/mamedriv.c (macs2bios is not), the eight ZN roots under their MAME
names (coh1000c, coh3002c, coh1002m, coh1000t, coh1002e, coh1001l,
coh1000w, coh1000a), modern Neo Geo members, coh1000w's CAT702, and 15
device archives that BIOS_LOAD reads first (atarisy1, coh3002t, m1comm,
midssio, namcoc65/68/69/71/74, s_smp, saa5050, sente6vb, sns_dsp1bleg,
t5182, v4bios). bctvidbs declares no ROM of its own. Three laserdisc
player programs are opened by name outside any ROM list, with a fatal
length, CRC32 and SHA1 check: pr8210, 22vp931 and simutrek.
pin_build accepts pin_follows in the schema, and bump_commit advances a
built_by profile that follows the tip.
Manifests: RetroPie gains 24 archives at its BIOS root, the ZN ones
under their new names, and nss.zip moves to the copy holding
nss-c.dat and nss-ic14.02. The other platforms do not change.
verify --all keeps its counts. profile_sync: 0 to review.
ES-DE starts the libretro MAME core with a command line as its content
in 22 commands across 21 systems ("apple2e -rompath \"%GAMEDIRRAW%;
%ROMPATH%/apple2\" -flop1 ...", resources/systems/linux/es_systems.xml
at RetroDECK's 15e1b236 and EmuDeck's ES-DE v3.5.0), run through the
shell by popen (es-core/src/utils/PlatformUtil.cpp:231, 257).
At 5f5a0774 the core reads content that is no file as a command line
(retro_init.cpp:966-1008). Set_Path_Option passes its own -rompath
<content dir>;<system>/mame/bios;<system>/mame/roms (580-597), then
every word of the command line follows, -rompath included, only -rp
being dropped when mame_paths_enable is off (902-940, 914-919). MAME
keeps the later value of an option given twice at one priority
(src/lib/util/options.cpp:260-276, clifront.cpp:243). Those commands
read their sets in the folders they name, and mame/bios stays read by
every command that passes none.
The ES-DE parser records these commands in searched_by with their core,
the mame profile declares libretro_pools (-rompath and -rp stand for
mame/bios), and a set there also goes to each folder a command names
for a machine that reads it.
Manifests: EmuDeck gains 16 files below roms/ (apple2, apple2gs,
astrocde, crvision, gamate, gamecom, gmaster, intellivision, odyssey2,
scv, supracan, vectrex, videopac, vsmile). RetroDECK does not change:
its standalone MAME commands already put the same sets at the same
paths. No file leaves.
RetroBat installs its stable archives, so each config_reads entry is
read at the build the binary names: Hatari 2.4.1, hatariB 0.3,
Hatari2014 at ab55c3e from the buildbot, Kronos 2.7.0 and Ymir 0.3.3.
SSF ships PreviewVer R28 and YabaSanshiro 1.20.32 has no public
source: binary_sha256 names the file their address refs are read in.
The seven RetroBat records citing an option list now hold.
A launcher record citing a config, option or feature file binds only
when the platform's code installs the file (installs), its launch code
was read for what replaces it (overrides), and the emulator's profile
shows where the shipped build loads it and reads each key
(config_reads, read at pin_build). Unproven records place no file and
hand no directory. verify, cross_reference and the platform page list
them apart, outside severity and --strict.
validation: [romdir] walks a PS2 ROM directory the way the profile's
fork reads it, masked_sha1 hashes a file with a byte range cleared, and
size_multiple bounds a size to a granule. The resolver name steps, the
pack and manifest scans, the emulator expansion and verify call the same
content_fits. A PCSX2 companion is taken only beside an image that
passes, and a companion placeholder no longer seeds a scan of its own.
2048 and gong (game), radio and video_processor (utility) and the test
cores (test) are libretro builds, but their role sat in type:, which
resolve_platform_cores filters on: all_libretro left them out, so no
platform resolved them and RetroArch's manifest named none, the
--installed-cores gap of issue 87. The role moves to role:, and type
stays libretro: type keeps saying how a profile is built and run, which
the resolver reads, while teaching the resolver that three role values
mean libretro would make type a classification again. The site and
coverage leave test cores out by role. fluidsynth, a library and no
libretro core, keeps type utility. A test keeps every buildbot core
named by RetroArch's resolution.
A launcher record can name the systems it is written for, and then
replaces there what the records naming none hand: RetroBat passes XRoar
-rompath bios/coco for coco and bios/dragon otherwise. An entry is
launched for the systems it names and those the platform declares a
file of its name under. A {system} search_dir gives one directory per
platform system, a colon search path each of its directories.
standalone_pools names settings a program reads as a list of
directories, each searched like a layout subfolder (openMSX filepool,
XRoar rompath). Any entry serves: the one the platform list fills
comes first, then the first of the BIOS tree. A handle above a
declared directory lands it where its link points (configure
--prefix). Record order now survives the standalone set.
Three changes to the search-list model, one commit because the readers
and the profiles must move together for the schema to hold.
Set requirement in a groups map. pom2 falls back on apple2.rom for the
][ and the ][+, and on apple2e.rom for the //e it boots and for the
unenhanced //e: one required on the file could not say both. A profile
now declares groups: {name: {required}}, a member writes no required
of its own (schema and validate_schemas refuse one) and load_emulator_
profiles derives it, true when one of its sets is. group takes a name,
a list, or a map from set to rank where the rank differs per set. pom2
is grouped from SystemProfile.cpp and MainWindow.cpp:246-296 at its pin.
One member per required set under --required-only. The pick is the
first the code reads among the held members the region filter leaves,
by rank then declaration order; a set the platform declares a member
of is carried by that declaration. The emulator pack, verify
--emulator, the platform pack, its manifest and verify --platform read
alternatives.required_only_spares or core_file_spares.
variant_group is now selection_slot: files a core chooses between by
a rule other than first found (disc territory for PicoDrive and
Pizza Boy SC, the o2em_bios option, a WebAssembly probe in SWF
Player). Where the code takes any one, the field became a group:
ARMSX1 (ArmSxBackend.java:149-157, name order), ePSXe (load_bios
0x433540-0x433621 of the 2.0.5 Linux x64 binary, one configured path,
HLE when BiosHLE is set), FPse and FPse-NG, DXX-Rebirth's HOGs
(inferno.cpp:472-512). odin and zesarux carried it with no effect.
slot.py compares ranks only between candidates that share a set.
A core that loads the first of several names (yabause: saturn_bios.bin,
sega_101.bin, mpr-17933.bin) needs one of them. Profiles wrote this as
required on the first name and optional on the others, so verify and
the gap report called saturn_bios.bin a missing required file while
sega_101.bin was held, and a set held only through a name marked
optional read as a need met by an optional file.
Model: an explicit group on the file entry, mirroring the platform
field. priority was not reused: it is a rank, read by slot.py, region.py
and truth.py inside a (system, region) slot, and that slot is not the
set. px68k-sdl ranks its IPL list and its font list each from 1 in one
system, pom2 ranks one list per machine model, DuckStation ranks 105
images across every region and takes any of them. A rank cannot say
where one list ends. priority stays the order inside a group.
Readers, through alternatives.settle_sets:
- verify --emulator and the emulator pack: a held member fills the
set, the others leave the report, a set nobody holds is one gap
under its first member naming the others.
- find_undeclared_files (verify platform, core complement of packs and
manifests): same rule, a platform declaration or launcher counts as
answering the set.
- cross_reference: excused members are set aside as other versions.
- slot.py: ranks compare members of one set only.
- archive members: a required set inside an archive is met by one.
- truth: a member gives no requirement of its own, one_of and
one_of_required carry the set, and the exporters and the diff leave
such a line's required as the platform wrote it.
- validate_schemas: members of a group share required.
Choosing GBA alone brought FBNeo's cheats and samples, 3,472 files,
because both trees listed every FBNeo system. The profile now names the
systems each serves, from the code: a driver's <name>.ini, cheat.dat,
cheatnes.dat or cheatsnes.dat (conc.cpp:815-828, 1059-1083), the md_,
pce_, tg_ and sgx_ drivers the tree holds, and samples read by arcade
drivers alone (samples.cpp:886-899).
The list now gives a tree the platform's ids its systems normalize to,
as a core extra's: the cheats said sega-megadrive where RetroArch says
sega-mega-drive, and a tree no platform system serves goes with the
files of none, as the pack puts it. The installer keeps a tree for the
systems chosen by name, not for every system a shared file names: the
arcade choice took blueMSX's machines through msx.zip.
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.
pin_frozen was prose, and no tool read the build file it cites, so a platform building another revision left the profile holding one nobody ships. pin_build records the platform, its repository, the revision read, the file, the variable and its value. check_freshness reads the file again where the platform's YAML now stands and reports STALE when the value moved. 36 of the 46 held profiles carry it, each value read from the build file at the platform's scraped revision. The other ten name no build file and are counted on one row: six RetroBat binary packages and four holds not tied to a platform build.
A bulk advance moved fheroes2, supertux and supermariowar past the
revision EmuELEC compiles, and nothing stopped it: bump_commit refused
built_by only. It now leaves a profile a single registered platform ships
until it carries pin_frozen or the new pin_follows, which says that
platform builds the branch tip.
hode, bermuda, bennugd-monolithic and ccleste are held on the
PKG_VERSION of their EmuELEC v4.8 package.mk, equal to their pins.
rigelengine was one commit past it (README.md only) and goes back to
f05996f9.
core_version is a string the code states, null or keyed by build mode,
and the schema refuses Git, SVN, unknown, master, main, latest, dev and
HEAD, alone or annotated. version_basis is defined per kind with the
fields each one needs, and kind none requires a null version.
tests/test_version_basis.py reads a recorded fixture of forge answers
offline and fails on drift, holds every profile to a basis (tag versions
in describe form, aliases equal to their profile, none as null), checks
that a pin advance reads the version again or is refused, and that the
schema refuses placeholders.
campaign.py takes buildbot nightlies (or a build of the pinned commit), the test content of tests/campaign/content.yml through romfetch, and runs core_probe for the files, boot, path, alias, variants and bench checks. A fixed rule table settles hle_fallback, required, path and aliases with the record ids as evidence, the rest goes to measurements/findings.jsonl. Resumable state, load, disk and budget guards, retries, content reference counting with an LRU cap, and an autorun job after the nightly.
Apps such as AetherSX2 named their user data folder only in prose, so
the site could neither print it nor show only the OS tabs that apply.
data_root keys android, ios, windows, macos and linux, each with the
path the user finds and the source_ref that builds it.
upstream_frozen says why upstream_commit stays: the port vendors that
upstream tree, synced to that release, or merged that commit. The view
is then read at its own pin, the way pin_frozen holds source_commit, and
a bump leaves it. Outside a GitHub fork network nothing else could tell
aps3e's vendored RPCS3 1f080485 from an upstream read on a date.
load_from: save_dir entries of a libretro build were left out of every
pack. They now go below the platform's save folder (registry
save_directory: RetroArch saves/, Lakka savefiles/, by core), the
manifest marks them root: save, and verify replays the same placement.
Platforms keeping saves per system or per game list them as omitted.
standalone_path is relative to the directories a standalone build
resolves it against, now declared per profile (standalone_directories).
A launcher record that links or passes a whole folder of the BIOS tree
under one of them gives that folder, and platform_layouts rebases the
standalone view once for the builder, the manifest, verify and slots
(launchers.standalone_root, common.standalone_destination).
Flycast on RetroPie and ROCKNIX reads bios/dc, on EmuDeck
bios/flycast/bios, on Batocera (FLYCAST_BIOS_PATH) and RetroBat
(Dreamcast.BiosPath) bios/dc. The ROCKNIX, Batocera and RetroBat
scrapers now record the patched data directory, the environment
variable and the setting that say so.
The -listxml names, for every machine, its parent (romof), the devices of its default configuration (device_ref) and the cards its slots offer (slotoption). A machine takes the system of the first set on its romof chain a written entry lists, and passes it to each device it can instantiate. A device set reached from one system gets system:, from several the new per-entry systems:, from none neither, and keeps serving every system of the profile. The gap report, the core extras and slots read the entry's own systems, so generate_pack --system and the installer pick by them.
The Required packs and manifests carried every data tree, the FreeIntv
overlays included. A data_directories entry now accepts required: false,
and the platform, emulator and manifest walks leave such a tree out under
--required-only. FreeIntv reads its overlays only with the multi-screen
option and draws a placeholder keypad without one (src/libretro.c:294-296,
350-369).
The resolver reads built_by as the platforms on which a core name means this build. Its definition said platforms that compile a libretro build, which excludes a standalone build a platform installs from the project's release. The field now says what it decides: platforms that ship this build under its core name, compiled or installed from the release.
DuckStation identifies its BIOS by MD5 in a folder it scans
(bios.cpp:208), so its entries' names are labels. The export wrote them
into Batocera's and ROCKNIX's lists as files to hold: a user with only
scph5501.bin read 104 missing BIOS where DuckStation boots. Labels also
lent their md5 to a name another core opens, and paired by name they
replaced System.dat's scph5000.bin hashes.
found_by: name | content, on a profile or a file and keyed by build like
load_from. The truth records which cores open each name (_named_by). A
label pairs with a platform entry by hash only, is never added, merges
with an opened name only on a shared hash, and is counted in the export
report rather than listed as missing.
unread_on names the platforms whose launcher points the emulator at other files. RetroBat writes absolute BIOS paths into standalone BlastEm's config, so the default names were reported as required and missing there. Such an entry leaves that platform's gap report and pack, and its emulator page says where it is never opened.
bundled describes the emulator's own release, and a platform package can differ both ways: Batocera's hcl package installs the binary alone and sends users to fetch the data, while its blueMSX core package copies the machines and databases beside the core. not_bundled_on and installed_on name those platforms, and the builder reads them through one rule.
A file or tree installed with the emulator is already on the user's machine, so packs, install manifests and verify's pack count leave it out. bundled is scoped by mode like any entry: Dolphin's Sys and PPSSPP's assets ship with the standalone releases, not with the libretro cores, so they now follow the libretro build only and still reach RetroArch packs. PrimeHack, standalone only, ships its own Sys.
Paid Android emulators announce versions that circulate only rebuilt or re-signed. The profile stays on the newest unmodified build, and version_source.no_genuine_copy names the release searched for, so check_freshness stops flagging it until the page announces a later one.
About forty profiles describe projects published outside any forge (Altirra, ePSXe, DraStic, mednafen, xroar). profile_sync skipped them as an unsupported host and check_freshness reported the same UNKNOWN line every run, so a new release adding a firmware went unseen. A profile can now name the page announcing its releases and a pattern for the version: --check-version reads it, and check_freshness --profiles calls the profile stale when the page announces another version than core_version.
Profiles, the wiki, comments, docstrings, command output and schema descriptions carried em-dashes, clause-joining semicolons, unicode arrows, box-drawing banners and check-mark glyphs. Each sentence was rewritten rather than having its character swapped. Hashes, paths, source_ref values and every cited file:line are unchanged, which a comparison of each parsed profile against the previous revision confirms.
validate_pr comments now say PASS and FAIL in words, and source_ref values in a profile's structured blocks render as code. test_prose_style fails if any of these comes back, in tracked files or in the generated site.
A prose citation whose text lived under several pins stayed in
read again until the text changed, so fixnes, zesarux and emucorex,
exact at their pins, would have refused every later bump.
prose_written_at names the pin a reader confirmed; it settles the
readings and never overrides a history with one candidate.
Dolphin and its forks hash dsp_rom.bin and dsp_coef.bin together and
warn on any combination outside known_roms. The profiles now carry the
accepted pairs, and the resolver keeps both files inside the first pair
the collection holds whole: MMJR and Ishiiruka were served the free ROM
beside the official coefficients.
Recalbox compiles libretro/mame at 0.258 and 0.278 itself; typed
libretro, both profiles were resolved for every all_libretro platform
although the buildbot RetroArch installs from has neither. A profile
now names the platforms that build it (built_by), and is reached only
when a platform lists it by name.
nethersx2-turnip-classic documents the shim rules of the revision it
pins, and says so in prose: the classic build is that revision. Compared
to HEAD it reported the same two changes every pass, and recaling would
have repointed its refs at rules this build never had.
pin_frozen says the freeze is deliberate, and the profile is then judged
against its own revision, exactly as one pinned to a superseded tag
already was. Recale and bump are refused for it, which is what makes the
declaration safe to trust.
Saying those profiles would stay open no matter what was wrong. A dead
forge is a verifiable fact, and a fact can be recorded: upstream_gone
carries why, and the profile stops being an open problem. The refs
describe the last revision anyone could reach, which is all any reader
can ask of them.
The declaration is guarded rather than trusted, because a forge can come
back and a profile that keeps asserting a death nobody rechecks is worse
than one that fails loudly. Declared and unreachable reports as a
recorded fact; declared and answering reports as the contradiction it
is, and the profile has to be read again.
yuzu and suyu carry GitHub's 451. citron carries the loss of
git.citron-emu.org and the squatter now sitting on the .com. Each names
what was probed and when, so the next reader retraces it rather than
repeating it.
Abdessamad Derraz