[Feature Request] Support for variables (e.g., %rompath%) in playlist paths for portability
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- Dominant language
- C
- Stars
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- Forks
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- Avg merge
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- Merged PRs (30d)
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Description
RetroArch playlists currently only support absolute or relative file paths. This creates portability problems when ROMs and RetroArch installations are moved between devices, different operating systems, or different storage locations.
Issue
There is no way to use variables such as:
%rompath% %basedir% %contentdir%
As such, a portable playlist should be able to aim at the ROMs path that is configured in the settings. Therefore, you can have different ROMs paths between devices.
I understand, that a portable device can aim at \roms on all devices. But that requires the roms to actually be inside the "roms" folder inside RetroArch's directory.
In my humble opinion, due to RetroArch's immense efforts at making emulation cross-platform, this should definitely be a feature.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
The issue names no files, tests, or entry points. Start by locating playlist path parsing and the settings value for the ROMs path, then check how paths are handled across platforms. Done means playlists can use the requested variables and resolve them to the configured locations, with portability coverage.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- c
- Domain
- frontend, operating-systems
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100