A pack writes one file per path, and the second pass of core extras
gave a path read by several cores to the first profile in name order:
EmuELEC's arcade/neogeo.zip took AdvanceMAME's copy although the folder
starts MAME 2003-Plus by default (es_systems.json:82), and RetroDECK's
cps folders took MAME 2000's neogeo.zip and MAME 2003's nss.zip, which
lack members MAME 2003-Plus requires there.
The copies cores ask for at one path are now gathered first. The copy
of the core the roms folder starts by default goes first, then the one
holding every required member of the most claims, then profile order.
The others stay alternatives in the manifest.
Manifests: EmuELEC arcade/neogeo.zip becomes neogeo.zip.74df3258
(MAME 2003-Plus, AdvanceMAME's 4ccf6682 an alternative). RetroDECK
roms/cps, cps1, cps2 and cps3 get neogeo.zip.74df3258 and
nss.zip.cba0bd8c. No file is added or removed. verify --all keeps its
counts.
EmuELEC starts AdvanceMAME for arcade, mame and cps1-3 (es_systems.json).
advmame.sh sets dir_rom to /storage/roms/arcade for arcade and keeps
/storage/roms/mame for every other system (advmame.sh:26-30, 80), so an
arcade set is read in both. A binding gave each entry one place: an entry
launched both for a system a record names and for one it does not now
takes the place of each, in the pack, the manifest and verify. A system
the platform's list or machines put the entry under stands for the
entry's own ids, so XRoar's coco3.rom stays in RetroBat's bios/coco alone.
The AdvanceMAME sets are filed under arcade as well as their board.
A second-pass copy outside the BIOS tree now carries its layout path and
resolves by it, as the first pass does: EmuELEC's roms/mame/stvbios.zip
took bios/Arcade/MAME's set by that tail, roms/arcade/stvbios.zip the
Arcade/Arcade one.
Manifests: EmuELEC gains the 29 sets in roms/arcade, each the file
roms/mame holds. roms/mame/stvbios.zip changes from bios/Arcade/MAME to
bios/Arcade/Arcade/stvbios.zip, the copy the entry resolves to. Nothing
else moves.
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.
Dolphin reads its User folder at $XDG_DATA_HOME/dolphin-emu, else
~/.local/share/dolphin-emu (Source/Core/UICommon/UICommon.cpp:449-477).
The profile names both, so a launcher handing that folder places the
layout:
- EmuELEC starts Dolphin with XDG_DATA_HOME=/storage/roms/dolphin
(dolphinSA/scripts/dolphin.sh:28): its 30 files move from the BIOS
root to dolphin/dolphin-emu/ of the install tree.
- RetroDECK links User/Triforce to bios/Triforce
(dolphin/component_prepare.sh:30, 49), where its list already puts
segaboot.gcm. The rest of the User folder sits in the Flatpak's data
directory and is named as read outside the BIOS folder.
An entry only the standalone build reads, path and no standalone_path,
now takes that path as its layout path (Load/Firmware/rtl_bt/), and
the pass copying a name the platform declares elsewhere reaches an
unprefixed path: gba_bios.bin lands in dolphin/dolphin-emu/GBA/.
Two filename-agnostic cores reading one BIOS folder each scan the same
images. The second scan stopped at an image the first had placed, so a
companion only the second core opens never reached the pack: Recalbox's
libretro PCSX2 reads <bios>.erom beside the images LRPS2 placed in ps2/.
KNULLI sets AetherSX2's [Folders] Bios to bios/ps2
(aethersx2Generator.py:219), yet its 112 PS2 BIOS files went to the
BIOS root. Three causes:
- a record's passes_to was split into words, so "[Folders] Bios"
could not be told from "[Filenames] BIOS". ini_keys() adds the
section-qualified key a profile names in standalone_directories.
- scans_dir records hand a folder too (ROCKNIX's bios/armsx2,
EmuDeck's PCSX2 and ARMSX2) and were not read as handed.
- the agnostic scan looked its seeds up by the id of the profile's
entries, while it walks the copies platform_layouts makes: any
bound layout scanned nothing. Copies map back to the profile's
entries by position.
An agnostic profile's entry the layout reads outside the BIOS tree
is now named by the gap report (outside_bios_folder) instead of
dropped: ARMSX2's arcade/proverb.zip on ROCKNIX and EmuDeck.
LRPS2 and PCEE2 name their BIOS <bios>.bin, which resolves to no
file, so the platform pack's agnostic scan never anchored pcsx2/bios/
for them. On RetroArch yaps2 anchored it and the files carried only
yaps2 as their core. On Batocera and RetroBat, where yaps2 does not
run, pcsx2/bios/ stayed empty or held only the platform's own list.
The scan now takes the folders where the system's other profiles
resolve a hashed dump of that shape, the evidence the emulator pack
already used, and a companion (<bios>.nvm) looks where its image is
proven.
The first profile reading a requirement hosts the others' claims,
and two ways of dropping the host dropped them too. DraStic brings its
own usrcheat.dat, and DSPerate, which reads the same file, lost it
wherever DraStic runs. A missing file was recorded for its first
reader alone: NAPALM.GRP named Raze, Data.rsdk Sonic Mania. A list
built for a board without that reader carried what the full list
left out, and install.py --target disagreed with the builder on
ROCKNIX, KNULLI, Batocera and RetroPie boards.
The ZIP replay in packextras.hidden_extras now skips roms, emulators and configs entries as the builder does, so verify and pack integrity stop counting files only the installer places. The consistency check treats the Android .nomedia marker as a pack note. MAME4droid's hiscore.dat leaves bios/: the app unpacks it from its own files.zip. VVVVVV's Make and Play data.zip is collected as a release asset, which EmuELEC declares as required.
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.
Kronos reads kronos/stvbios.zip, else stvbios.zip at the root of the
system directory, and a ST-V game stops without either
(libretro.c:1608-1617, 1676-1681 at the pin). The archive under
archive_prefix and the root copy are one need, but only loose entries
could be members, so the required-only pack carried both.
An archive's own entry now joins a set like a loose file. verify
--emulator and the emulator pack settle archive units with the loose
entries, the required-only pick covers them, find_undeclared_files
and cross_reference record them, and the unit under archive_prefix
ranks before the same name at the root. Its members still settle the
archive by their contents. Kronos' stvbios.zip is grouped stv-bios.
No other profile reads one archive under two paths: odin and
tgpulse_next_m1 place their own entries at the prefix path, and
flycast's naomi.zip has one path per build.
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.
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.
_collect_emulator_extras recorded a losing claim's path without the
declared root, while the winner's was rewritten with it. On RetroDECK
verify --region kept Rustation and Mednafen STV copies of withdrawn
bios/ files in undeclared_files as packed (7 under japan, 4 under
north-america, 3 under europe).
_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.
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.
PCSX2 stats <bios>.rom1 then <stem>.rom1, case-sensitive on Linux (BiosTools.cpp:214-229), and so does PCSX2 1.6 for erom. The pack wrote the stored SCPH-70004.ROM1, never found. A companion entry also seeded a scan of its own with a 4 MB bound and swept cheats, GameIndex.yaml and DVD firmware to the BIOS root. A companion now scans its image's folder for its own extension only, any size, since the code reads min(size, filesize), and is written as the code spells it.
The rom folder survey joined 463 folders to their default core's whole
profile, no system of it matching. SYSTEM_ALIASES, the one table
_norm_system_id reads, now folds ten more spellings of one machine:
apple2gs, astrocade, astrocde, creativision, gamepocketcomputer,
nintendo-super-game-boy, cps1, cps2, cps3 and pgm. The profiles that
used them take the canonical id (mame, groovymame, mamemess, mame0258,
mame0278, bsnes, mesen-s, mesence, jollycv, fbalpha2012 and its three
CPS cores, fbneo_cps12), as test_system_ids requires.
With bsnes and bsnes-hd now filing SGB1.sfc under one system, their
claims fold onto one report entry. _names_content read only the first
claim, hashless, and nSide's SGB1.sfc/ tree took the path before the
file. A hash on any folded claim now counts: every pack keeps the
destinations it had.
The site drops the eight display names the canonical ids replace and
names tvgames. README counts 533 systems instead of 541.
The collector deduplicated a destination already carrying the extras
prefix at prefix/prefix/name while the builder wrote it at prefix/name.
DuckStation's standalone bios/<name> on Recalbox and PCSX2's scan then
held one path under two keys, and --region withdrew only one. The
second pass also no longer claims a path another core's extra holds
for a name only that extra covers.
batocera-systems lists bios/saves/dolphin-emu/Triforce/segaboot.gcm, so the pack folder for the save directory is userdata-saves/. validate_schemas refuses a pack folder the BIOS tree already uses.
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.
A platform can hand each libretro core a system directory of its own
(core_system_dirs). platform_layouts then gives one view per directory,
so the gap report, the builder, the manifest, slots and cross_reference
place a core's files below each folder it is handed, and a core handed
none gets no file. Resolution strips the folder again and searches the
collection by the core's own path.
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.
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.
generate_pack and verify read --system beside --platform through common.resolve_system_arg, built on platform_system_names, the mapping the manifest's system_names comes from. verify --platform --system now reports on the narrowed pack. Unknown names are refused with suggestions before the database is read.
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.
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.
The second pass, the archive-prefix pass and the agnostic scan built
extras without source_name or source_path, so verify found no gap report
entry for them and counted game data such as hiscore.dat as core files.
Every extra now carries its entry's category and key, and verify reads
the category from the extra the builder places.
verify resolved platform entries with common.resolve_local_file and put
the slot override first, and the region pass added a destination hint.
packresolve.resolve_declaration now serves the builder, the manifest,
verify and the region pass: release assets cached for a file absent from
bios/ count as shipped in all four, and a release asset keeps its answer
over a slot override.
Ranking contested core claims sorted the whole gap report, which
reordered every manifest. Only the claims on one contested path move now,
grouped where the first of them stood, and two spellings of a path are
one group where the filesystem folds case (RetroBat's 64DD_IPL_DEV.bin).
An entry without a destination (EmuDeck's system:md5 whitelist) no
longer counts as a pack path in verify, and step 5 prints one status for
counts and paths together. A full offline run compared all 12 archives
and 930 emulator packs path by path, every one equal.
A destination no platform declares went to the first claimant in profile
order whatever the proof: fbalpha2012 asks for hiscore.dat by name and
took the root of six packs over cores that pin it by sha1. Claims on a
contested path are now ranked by what the collection holds for each (a
held declared hash, then a path or every required archive member, then a
name, then a contradicted hash), and profile order only breaks ties.
Measured: 14 slots change file across the platforms, among them
hiscore.dat, kick13.rom on RetroPie, cgb_boot.bin and dmg_boot.bin on
EmuDeck, and ROCKNIX neogeo.zip and neocdz.zip.
emulator_region_drops counted as held any file that resolved. A regional
dump whose md5 the core's own check refuses won its region, the fallback
was withdrawn, and the emulator pack then refused the winner: no BIOS for
the system, and verify --emulator, reading the same drops, did not see
it. Held now means what the builder ships, as _ships decides on the
platform side.
The region grouping and phase 2 of each pack and manifest called
find_undeclared_files with the same arguments: 30 reports for the 15
manifests of --all --manifest, 2.8 s, now 15 and 1.7 s. The 15 manifests
are byte-identical before and after.
Step 5 compared (ok, total) and the core file count. RetroArch, Lakka
and RetroPie read 526/526 on both sides while verify credited four paths
below SGB1.sfc and SGB2.sfc that the pack never writes: a declared file
blocks them as a directory. verify now places the platform files in the
builder's order with the same path rules, and a user_provided or
external declaration keeps its slot on both sides, so no core file takes
it in the report only.
verify --destinations writes the paths each pack holds by the report,
and step 5 compares them with the archive members (notes and data tree
members set aside). Every emulator profile, in each build it has, is
built in memory (PackRecord, nothing read or written) and compared with
verify --emulator path by path. Cost measured here: about 1 s per
platform archive and 11 s for the 930 emulator packs.
A file a core reads at several destinations is added again at each one by a second pass that worked from the raw profile entries, so files the emulator or the platform's package installs came back into the packs and manifests by that route: the installer's per-target replay disagreed with the builder on six files.
Abdessamad Derraz