The transfer of roms and more.

Fruitybit

4.4 brings many goodies, and going forwards is a must. However, I’ve spent a while trying to get things the way they were, and will be for a while yet:) Would it be feasible to use retropie-mount to transfer all the content of retropie before the migration to a big upgrade, not just roms, then simply change the folder name to retropie in order to move all that info back to a new sd card image? I was so chuffed all my saves and bios were migrated I couldn’t help but think this would make a great way to ease and enhance the process. Configurations and other changes made could be simply moved over rather than starting afresh. Maybe even a way to download packages that were installed.
Part of me would be devastated though, that I don’t get the opportunity to tweak and learn again!

mitu

@fruitybit The transfer of configurations - beside the ROMs - were discussed here. But the configs are not transferred via the ROM transfer USB method.
What you could do is use the File Manager to copy over the /opt/retropie/config folder to the USB and then, after upgrade, cherry-pick any configuration files you have saved and put it back.
As always before major upgrades, create a backup of your configured original image.

mediamogul

@fruitybit

I use a script that I access from the RetroPie menu to:

Backup specified configuration files and folders related to gaming and the overall system
Backup specified file types recursively from specified locations (srm/sta/cfg...etc)
Create a text file listing all installed emulators, libretrocores and ports
Keep only a specified number of previous backups

I've added to it and used it for both backup and restoration for over a year now and it's worked out well for me. I'll post it below for reference.

#!/bin/bash

##Set backup directory name based on timestamp

DIRNAME=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S)

##Create backup directory

mkdir -p /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$DIRNAME"

##Backup files and folders

sudo cp --parents -rfv \
	/boot/config.txt \
	/etc/fstab \
	/etc/udev/rules.d \
	/etc/rc.local \
	/etc/samba/smb.conf \
	/opt/retropie/configs \
	/home/pi/.config \
	/home/pi/.elinks \
	/home/pi/.local \
	/home/pi/.openMSX \
	/home/pi/.q3a \
	/home/pi/custom-binaries \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/Scripts \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/Mame\ 2003/mame2003 \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/Mame\ 2010/mame2010 \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/kodi \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/+Reset\ Mapper\ with\ Joystick\ Disabled.sh \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/+Reset\ Mapper\ with\ Joystick\ Enabled.sh \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ports/*.sh \
	/home/pi/RetroPie/screenshots \
	/media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$DIRNAME"

##Backup specified file types recursively from specified locations

sudo rsync -Ravm --include='*.srm*' -f 'hide,! */' /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$DIRNAME"/

sudo rsync -Ravm --include='*.cfg*' -f 'hide,! */' /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$DIRNAME"/

sudo rsync -Ravm --include='*.state*' -f 'hide,! */' /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/ /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$DIRNAME"/

sudo rsync -Ravm --include='*.png*' -f 'hide,! */' /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/*/overlays/ /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$DIRNAME"/

sudo rsync -Ravm --include='*.bat*' -f 'hide,! */' /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/pc/ /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$DIRNAME"/

##Create text file listing installed components

cd /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/"$DIRNAME"/ || exit

INSTALLED="./installed.txt"

touch $INSTALLED

echo >> $INSTALLED "emulators:"
echo >> $INSTALLED
ls >> $INSTALLED /opt/retropie/emulators/
echo >> $INSTALLED

echo >> $INSTALLED "libretrocores:"
echo >> $INSTALLED
ls >> $INSTALLED /opt/retropie/libretrocores/
echo >> $INSTALLED

echo >> $INSTALLED "ports:"
echo >> $INSTALLED
ls >> $INSTALLED /opt/retropie/ports/
echo >> $INSTALLED

echo >> $INSTALLED "supplementary:"
echo >> $INSTALLED
ls >> $INSTALLED /opt/retropie/supplementary/
echo >> $INSTALLED

##Keep only specified number of backups. Change numeral in "head -n -*" to however many backups are to be kept.

cd /media/usb0/Backups/RetroPie/  || exit

ls -1tr | head -n -2 | xargs -d '\n' rm -rfv --

##Clean up onscreen text

clear

Fruitybit

Thanks for the feedback folks, @mitu, I have so many backups I’m having to delete early ones!
@mediamogul That’s a most handy script, thanks for posting it here:)

ray3d

@mediamogul How do you run it? And after run it will ask you the destination usb and directory to backup?

mediamogul

@ray3d said in The transfer of roms and more.:

How do you run it?

Myself, I created a directory named 'scripts' in /home/pi/RetroPie/retropiemenu/ and placed it there. Afterwards it can be executed from the RetroPie Menu.

And after run it will ask you the destination usb and directory to backup?

The destination and items to be backed up are both written into the script above. You would want to change them to suit yourself if need be.

ray3d

@mediamogul Wonderful.