Is Setting gamelist.xml As Read-Only OK?
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I have multiple gamelist.xml files that go in my various rom folders. I work tirelessly tweaking each one, to ensure all the information is just-so. Which is to say I wouldn't want anything overwriting it or adding/changing any of the current data for my games once I've finished it. Is it OK to mark these XML files read-only in Windows first, to stop them from being editable or overwritten on the Retropie? Or would that cause some kind of accessing issues when trying to play/launch?
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@alphabetapie I'd make backup copies. Isn't there a "last played time/date" saved in there?
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@iandaemon It does indeed add that. Which is why I was hoping to avoid it. I keep copies, but if i ever wanted to make an image of something later that has been changed, I wouldn't want to have to go through and remove the last played/number of times played lines it adds. I don't find the need for that. So hoping read-only will work ok, and it won't screw up anything in the overall setup (by not being able to write something to the XML.
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@alphabetapie Oh, so you don't want to save that information. You can always make a backup of the whole system and give your idea a shot. If things break you can always go back to your backup.
Or (after backing up XML files) you could write a script or a macro to highlight the differences after some time. I dunno, I'm just throwing things out there.
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@alphabetapie said in Is Setting gamelist.xml As Read-Only OK?:
Is it OK to mark these XML files read-only in Windows first, to stop them from being editable or overwritten on the Retropie?
No, marking them 'read-only' from windows is not going to make them read-only on Linux. If you wish the files to not be updated, there's an EmulationStation option to not save the metadata (last played/favorite/kid/etc.).
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@alphabetapie Yeah, I wouldn't ever rely on anything to be secured by a read-only flag. Other tools could go in and change it back and you'd end up loosing your hours of hard work. Create backups from time to time instead.
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@mitu said in Is Setting gamelist.xml As Read-Only OK?:
@alphabetapie said in Is Setting gamelist.xml As Read-Only OK?:
Is it OK to mark these XML files read-only in Windows first, to stop them from being editable or overwritten on the Retropie?
No, marking them 'read-only' from windows is not going to make them read-only on Linux. If you wish the files to not be updated, there's an EmulationStation option to not save the metadata (last played/favorite/kid/etc.).
Funny you should mention this, as I did try to do an experiment. But I found that I'd mark them in Windows read only, copy them over to the pie, then when I'd copy them back, the read only was not being honored. Had me pulling my hair out, now I see why (thought it might have been my FTP client too). Thanks for the tip.
Also, when I set that part about ES not saving meta data, will that be saved to a config file somewhere (and which one). I like to back up my settings so I don't have to keep remembering everything I did.
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@alphabetapie said in Is Setting gamelist.xml As Read-Only OK?:
Also, when I set that part about ES not saving meta data, will that be saved to a config file somewhere (and which one).
EmulationStation's setttings are saved in
$HOME/.emulationstation/es_settings.cfg.
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