The v4.8 release publishes four images (Amlogic-ng, GameForce,
OdroidGoAdvance, OdroidM1, read from its asset names). The metapackage
(packages/sx05re/emuelec/package.mk:8-77) builds the S922X cores, dolphinSA
and mame only on Amlogic-ng, Amlogic-no, RK356x and OdroidM1, and removes
duckstation on the handhelds with a sed that replaces the first match only:
pcsx_rearmed, written twice, keeps its 64-bit build. Each package is mapped
to its cores by the .so or program its install step copies, PKG_ARCH is
applied as scripts/build:28-30 does, and es_systems.cfg is edited per
device as emuelec-emulationstation/package.mk:114-143 does. Amlogic-ng and
OdroidM1 list 124 cores, the handhelds 117.
RetroPie was the only platform with status: archived, which kept it out
of verify --all, slots, the pipeline and list_platforms unless
--include-archived was typed. release_pack already decides which packs a
release publishes and the installer serves every platform, so the status
set nothing apart. The field, its schema entry and the flag are gone, and
RetroPie is covered by every full run like any other platform.
check_source_paths read the trees profiles pin from source and upstream
only, so the two platform trees the record now holds for pin_build
files read as orphaned and the record as stale.
reading-reports quotes a RetroDECK run, which now prints the bundled count and 30 missing game data instead of 38. The comment introducing the bundled names also loses its semicolon.
Walking the systems sorted reordered the declarations doubled.py
reports from, so the export report named the CoCo reader first. The
declarations keep the platform's order again, and the packed file is
picked from the sorted walk the builder makes.
A search for gba_bios.bin or scph5500.bin landed on a page described as
"It reads 4 files, none of them required". The snippet now names the
console and the files, required first, in the longest form that fits.
Every source link on the site leads to a path the source record saw at
a commit. The Build file row linked pin_build files unchecked, eight of
them at commits the record did not hold. build_source_paths now records
the build files read at a commit, and the row links only those: a tag
can move and stays plain text. The record run also picked up two cited
paths it had not seen before (pom2 CMakeLists.txt, pcem configure.ac).
generate_manifest called slot_choices, and pack_overrides called it again with the same five arguments. pack_overrides takes the choices when the caller holds them. Measured on generate_pack.py --all --manifest --offline: 48 calls and 7.0 s in slot_choices before, 24 calls and 4.3 s after (wall 45.7 s and 42.4 s, one run each on a loaded host). The manifests written are identical.
SelectionIndex.build and system_group called _norm_system_id 1.7 million times per manifest run for about a thousand ids, each through the manufacturer prefix loop. The function reads only its argument and two constant tables, so its answer is cached. Measured on the call volume of one manifest run (630 ids, 1,686,618 calls): 1.53 s uncached, 0.07 s cached. The end-to-end manifest run moves inside its own noise on this host (45.9 to 50.6 s across four runs).
AmberELEC's metapackage adds LIBRETRO_CORES_EXTRA (bsnes, Mesen, melonDS, geolith) only on RG552, RG353 and RG503, and deletes those cores from es_systems.cfg on every other device (packages/amberelec/package.mk:23-31, 45-58 at a21975bf). The new target scraper reads the Makefile's device images, that test and es_systems.cfg the way the platform scraper does: RG351P, RG351V and RG351MP list 125 cores, the other three 136. The installer reads the device from COREELEC_DEVICE in os-release (scripts/image:168).
A pack folded for Windows and macOS keeps one spelling of each case twin. Extracted on a Steam Deck or Linux, the core asking for the other spelling finds nothing, and only the installer added it. Where the platform also runs on a filesystem that keeps case, the README now lists each spelling left out beside the one it holds: 12 for EmuDeck and 10 for RetroArch, the manifest's case_variants.
Every change to install.py meant a sha256sum pasted by hand into
install.sh and install.ps1, and the tests that caught a stale pin
failed on two bare hashes. scripts/pin_installer.py writes both pins
(--check only reports), the pin tests name it, check_freshness reads
the pins through it and refresh_stale runs it for a stale pin row.
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.
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.
A card's BIOS folder zipped to upload it was hashed as one file and
reported not recognised, its contributor asked where the dump came from
and told to place it under bios/. A ZIP no list or profile declares as a
whole is now read member by member: each is named held, declared and not
held, or not recognised, and the contributor is asked for the files
unzipped. A declared archive (a MAME or FBNeo set) is never opened.
render padded the local value but not the remote one, so in an area
where some rows carry a remote value their detail started fifteen
columns later than the rows without one. The remote value is padded to
its column, and a row without one leaves the same blank span.
check_freshness gained a romfolders area and refresh_stale did not:
its rows were dropped from a saved report without a word, and --only
romfolders was refused. A rom-folder pin is moved by hand, so the area
is listed for a human, a test holds the two area lists equal, and the
--only help names every area.
--dry-run printed its text plan and returned before --json was read,
so a caller parsing the output as JSON failed. With both flags the plan
is printed as JSON: planned jobs with their commands and follow-ups,
the rows left to a human, and the count ignored.
A collision line named two files and neither the system declaring each
nor the one the pack ships, so the reader went back to the platform
file. find_collisions walks the systems in the builder's sorted order,
takes the builder's preferred declaration, and the line and the JSON
now name each system and the file packed. RetroDECK's bios/disk.rom
reads as the CoCo ROM packed, the PC-88 one left out, as its manifest
holds.
The JSON report put "outcome": "new" on every file without another
outcome, so a path that does not exist, or a file that failed a check,
was listed as a new contribution. A failed file now reads "failed".
artifact_lock created its directory even for a shared reader, so a
mistyped path given to --verify-packs or release_record was left as a
directory holding a .lock, and split_pack created the parent before
printing a bare errno. A reader now raises ArtifactDirectoryMissing,
which run_cli prints on one line, and split_pack checks its target
before taking the lock.
A refresh blocked on a data directory lock printed only that another
run held it, then waited with no limit. The line now names the lock
file and the lsof command that shows its holder, and for a refresh,
the generate_pack --no-refresh-data and --offline runs that read the
cache without waiting.
verify counted game data installed with its emulator as missing, which cross_reference files as bundled: 24 of Batocera's 427. Bundled firmware already left the lists, and the line naming it never printed. Every bundled entry is now counted on that line, required firmware named and the rest under --verbose.
The previous commit counted a name with no resolved copy as not held, which also dropped release assets the builder holds while no copy is on disk (test_install_selection AHeldFileTheInstallerCannotFetch). Only the case-insensitive name match now leaves out copies in another emulator's tree, as resolve_local_file does.
The entry pattern required four spaces of indent. EmuELEC indents 23 systems with one tab, so render appended each again whole and the published export carried 21 duplicated keys, the md5 fills only in the second copy. Any indent opens an entry now, and an entry written again keeps its own. The EmuELEC export is regenerated: one copy of each system, the amiga entry also gaining the eight WHDLoad Kickstarts the profiles added since 2026-10-22.
--strict fails on a profile no declared repository answers for, yet --triage scored it 0 under the clean profiles and left it out of the count to review. It now weighs as a pin to set again and is counted.
teknogods/TeknoParrotUI and simple64/simple64 answer 404 on the API and the web, and neither organisation lists them now. simple64's README at the pin archives the project for gopher64. Each profile declares upstream_gone and a fork that keeps its default branch at the analysed commit: thecrixux/TeknoParrotUI master is b75872ad, simple64-vault/simple64 main is d8c969c7. realign_prose reads a source declared gone through that mirror, which unblocks five teknoparrot notes citations that anchor unchanged.
dosbox-x's et4000.bin matched only pcem's et4000.BIN. resolve_local_file, asked as dosbox-x, refuses another emulator's tree in its case-insensitive step, so the pack and installer leave it out, while the gap report and verify's core files resolved without the asker and counted it held. Both now resolve as the profile, and the manifests of Batocera and KNULLI no longer flag it held.
A location written without its file, (:507), reads in the file named last in the scalar, either cited or named as 'path:' before a list. A dotless file cited with its directory (tools/errorgen:20) is a citation too. devilutionx, corsixth, starship, plastic, eden-nightly, theforceengine, lightspark and higan_sfc gain 33 citations that bump and realign now follow. Two read that way pointed at another file and now name theirs: devilutionx assets.cpp:511-518, corsixth app.lua:1591.
fetch_large_file verified a cached copy and returned its name, which another run replaces when the release serves a re-upload: the caller then packed bytes it never verified. The returned path is now a hard link under .cache/large/.by-sha1/<sha1>/, kept only if it holds the inode that was hashed. Revisions no name holds are dropped a day later. restore_large_files hashes each copy before moving it into place.
Step 5 compared every narrowed pack with verify and never the --split parts with the full pack, so a part writing a path the full pack settles passed every check. check_split_packs builds each platform's parts in memory and compares their union with the full pack, path for path and byte for byte.
pipeline.py --offline --with-export, listed as a standard command, passes
no --fetch to step 2e: on a fresh clone the database, verify and truth
were built before the export failed on every platform whose own file it
patches. The run is refused before step 0 when .cache/upstream-native/
holds nothing for such a platform, and tools.md says how to fill it.
The v2026.10.10 notes said a pack holds every file its emulators open, so
a game never stops on a missing file, and that hashes never come from a
forum list: the gap analysis lists files no pack carries, and in md5
mode a pack keeps the platform's own md5 (verification-modes.md). The
generated text and the README now point to the gap analysis, and
release_notes.py refuses a whats-new text holding a judging or
contradicted phrase.
realign_prose dated a whole field from the last commit that changed any of its citations. idtech4a++ corrected two notes citations by hand in the commit that advanced its pin, so the untouched Game.java:69-72 and GameResourceUrl.java:14-118 read as written under the current pin and were never offered again. Each citation is now followed through the history on its own. The two idtech4a++ ranges move to 72-75 and 15-121, read at ce49510f.
Each part was built alone: the Other_Cores part never saw the platform's destinations and each part had its own case fold. RetroDECK's parts wrote bios/SGB1.sfc/ members beside the file bios/SGB1.sfc, RetroBat's wrote 21 openmsx/ twins of openMSX/ files, and a path two systems declare got each system's file. The full pack is now built in memory first and a part writes a declared file or core extra only where the full pack writes the same bytes.
Abdessamad Derraz