ROCKNIX writes some add_emu_core calls under a case on DEVICE, and the
rom folders file keeps that branch as the offer's `when` (uae4arm for
amiga, emulators/package.mk:188). A board's core list names such a core
when another folder offers it there, so --target placed its files in a
folder the board does not offer it for.
offer_boards() reads `when` and board_defaults against the platform's
targets, aliases included. A board build (generate_pack and generate
--manifest with --target, verify --target) carries the board in the
config (TARGET_KEY), and content_folder_tags leaves out the pairs the
board is not offered. A manifest for every board lists in
offered_boards each profile placed in such a folder, and install.py
--target drops its files there on the other boards.
Manifests: no file moves. The cores ROCKNIX offers under a device case
read no file beside the game today, so no manifest carries
offered_boards yet.
A board's core list names Batocera's standalone amiberry and the
buildbot's amiberry core alike, so install.py --target kept the
amiberry 8.5.0 libretro files on bcm2711, whose RetroArch downloads
nothing. resolve_platform_cores decides that reach, and the install
list now carries its answer as downloaded_cores, read by the
installer's narrowing for a target.
The builder tested only the first installable name of a profile:
Batocera lists higan_sfc_balanced and nside_sfc_balanced, the x86_64
downloader offers the second, and the core left the x86_64 pack with
its Super GameBoy files.
Batocera and KNULLI start shadPS4 from CONFIGS/shadps4, so its user
folder sits below /userdata/system/configs. The scrapers read that root
from batoceraPaths and write configs_root with its source_ref. The
manifest names it configs_directory, and install.py honours it through
the same checks as roms_directory: character rules, at most two ups,
the ancestor match and the lexical bound.
roms_directory.from_bios and the emulators_directory folders come from a
downloaded list. from_bios now meets the character rules of every
manifest path (shared with _safe_relative_path: no backslash, drive,
empty segment, trailing slash or control), climbs at most two folders
(../../Roms, the deepest the rom folders files record) before plain
names, and its joined form must equal the BIOS folder's ancestor at that
depth: "." is the BIOS folder, null leaves the files out. Every
emulator folder the installer builds goes through _safe_relative_path
and stays below the folder holding the BIOS folder.
platforms/romfolders/<platform>.yml records the roms root from the OS's
own source (roms_root path and from_bios), the same fact the registry's
roms_directory restated for ROCKNIX alone. The manifest's roms_directory
now carries from_bios, which the installer follows from a BIOS folder of
the platform's name, and the registry key is gone. A list that installs
above its BIOS folder (AmberELEC) holds its roms root in the install
tree: a file a launcher runs from there is a plain dest. emulators_directory
stays in the registry: no rom folders file names emulator folders.
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.
--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.
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.
install/<platform>.json wrote the constant "1.0" as the version of the
list it was built from. The manifest now carries the version the platform
YAML records, and generate_pack refuses a YAML without one.
inherits: no longer passes a parent's version to a child: Lakka was
published as RetroArch v1.22.2 in its manifest, pack name and site page.
lakka.yml records v6.1, the Lakka-LibreELEC tag its target list is read
at. The MiSTer scraper refuses a BiosDB without a timestamp instead of
writing an empty version.
A pack's manifest.json records list_version, so an install from the pack
alone knows it too. Manifests regenerated twice and compared: only
version and generated changed.
A platform or emulator record whose value designates a collection
file carries its sha1 and is filed under the file's other hashes, so
a SHA1 paste finds the setups listing it by MD5. The data page shows
every manifest field, writes URL templates as code, states the EmuDeck
rule, the browser lookup and the empty lists. systems.json gives every
id holding files a page, Files to source splits at 100 rows with an
upload link per file, and MiSTer and BizHawk get no empty core table.
Each manifest carries system_titles, the name the site prints for every system its files list (Sony PlayStation, not sony-playstation or psx), so the installer can show it. Older installers ignore the field.
Batocera, KNULLI, Recalbox, RetroBat and RetroDECK hand a libretro core <saves>/<system> at each launch. Each copy lands below every system that runs the core. EmuDeck keeps one unsorted saves/retroarch/saves. The unsupported platforms record why.
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.
The install manifest marks each game data file "category": "game_data":
a platform entry only game data profile entries read, or a core file its
profile declares game data. Firmware carries no category. Every manifest
says "categorized": true so the installer can refuse an older list.
generate_pack.py --no-game-data cuts those files from the platform list
and the core profiles before the build, names each one with the cores that
read it as game data, and tags the pack _NoGameData through _narrowings.
verify.py and the pack check take the same cut, so --verify-packs and the
report describe the pack the builder wrote. Modes without a platform
(--emulator, --system alone, --from-md5) and --all-variants refuse it.
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.
The manifest now carries system_names, each system's native_system names from the platform's own file, and --system, its suggestions and --list-systems read them: --platform batocera --system psx installs sony-playstation.
RomM lists a platform's firmware folder without descending (base_handler.py:1002, recursive=False) and EmulatorJS writes the chosen file, or each zip member, under its bare name. 543 files of the RomM pack sat below a folder where no core could read them. The registry now marks RomM's folder flat, and such files are omitted with the reason below_platform_folder in the manifest and the installer.
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.
Manifests list each data directory's source archive and the hash of
every file; the installer rebuilds the tree from the archive and keeps
only the files whose hash matches.
The RetroArch list is folded for Windows and macOS. Its manifest
now carries the names a case-keeping directory also needs, and the
installer adds them after probing the BIOS directory.
Two builds of the same pack from the same inputs produced different
archives. Of 67 members, 65 were already identical: only README.txt
and manifest.json differed, both stamped with the wall clock by
writestr and the second carrying a generated timestamp. Generated
members now use the epoch the archive rebuilder already applies, and
the timestamp comes from the database snapshot the pack was built
from, so the same data yields the same bytes.
Install manifests skipped archived platforms, which is why RetroPie
had none; archived means upstream is no longer scraped, not that the
packs stopped shipping. A target-filtered manifest also had no record
of its filter beyond the filename, so it carries one the way a
region-filtered manifest already does.
JSON Schemas for the database, install and pack manifests, target
manifests, site API envelopes and stats, plus the semantic invariants a
schema cannot express: declared totals matching their lists, no
destination both installed and omitted, database keys matching their
sha1. validate_site.py checks the rendered HTML for metadata, headings,
image alternatives, duplicate ids and unresolved local links.
Pack manifests are read from inside the generated archives, where
generate_pack writes them, rather than from a dist/ glob that matches
nothing.
Emulator and platform schemas gain additionalProperties: false, and
cores[] plus contents[].name must be strings: an unquoted 81 or 01 in
YAML parses as a number and stops matching the upstream name.
Abdessamad Derraz