Syncs your ROMs and metadata from a network (or any other) directory. Be careful with this quick hacky script, it might stir up or delete your ROMs, gamelists and boxarts if you are not careful. Always backup and test. Use read-only where possible. Read "Known Issues" below.
Configurations are made in the file retropie_sync.conf. The following options have to be set for the script to work.
| Parameter | Usage | Default |
|---|---|---|
| sourcepath | path your data will be synced from (should be read-only) | - |
| romspath | path your ROMs will be synced to, empty disables this | romspath="/home/pi/RetroPie/roms" |
| metapath | path your EmulationStation metadata will be synced to, empty disables this | metapath="/home/pi/.emulationstation" |
| systems | list of systems to sync data for | systems=("gb" "gbc" "gba" "nes" "snes") |
| restart | if EmulationStation should be restarted on changes (hacky, read "Known Issues" below) | restart=false |
| retries | number of retries until script stops for good, set to 0 if using local sync | retries=10 |
| retryinterval | number of seconds between retries | retryinterval=10 |
I wrote this script for a PiBoy DMG, but keep my master ROMs directory on a CIFS network share in my home network. The following steps are needed to replicate my setup, which I tested, works for me :)
If ROM sync is enabled, this script expects your ROMs to be sorted on your network share as they would be in RetroPie (separated by subfolders named after their respective systems). More nested folders inside of those (e.g. "Romhacks", "Pokemon" etc.) are okay.
Additionally, if metadata sync is enabled, the script expects a directory .emulationstation in the network share root, that contains subfolders for gamelists and downloaded images. You can copy them from your RetroPie under /home/pi/.emulationstation/gamelists and /home/pi/.emulationstation/downloaded_images.
Savestates and savegames are normally stored in /home/pi/RetroPie/roms. Since we want to sync ROMs to that directory, we need to move them.
Connect to your RetroPie via SSH.
mkdir /home/pi/RetroPie/saves
find /home/pi/RetroPie/roms -type f -name "*.srm" -or -name "*.sav" -or -name "*.state*" -exec mv {} /home/pi/RetroPie/saves/ \;
Then, in EmulationStation, open Retroarch Settings, go to "Settings" → "Directories" and set both "Savegames" and "Savestates" to /home/pi/RetroPie/saves.
Go to "Settings" → "Configuration", check "Save configuration on exit", then exit.
cd /home/pi
git clone https://github.com/Wyrrrd/RetroPie-sync
sudo apt-get install autofs
Add the following line to /etc/auto.master:
/media/cifs /etc/auto.cifs-shares --timeout=60 --ghost
Add the file /etc/auto.cifs-shares with the following contents:
roms -fstype=cifs,uid=1000,credentials=/home/pi/.smbcredentials,ro ://path.to/network/share
Add the file /home/pi/.smbcredentials with your read-only network share credentials:
username=changeme
password=changeme
Add the following line to /opt/retropie/configs/all/autostart.sh, as first line before everything else:
/home/pi/RetroPie-sync/retropie_sync.sh &
- Gamelists are not being merged. If EmulationStation updates local gamelist, older but more up to date remote gamelist might not be synced.
- Even if gamelists are synced, "LastPlayed" info is lost.
- Only sound to signal changes to the user is not sufficient, adding a visual notification would be better.
- EmulationStation restart is hacky. If a game is started, and quit after EmulationStation restart, Retropie doesn't find it's way back to EmulationStation.
The sound done.wav is "Laser Cannon" by Mike Koenig, which is licensed under Attribution 3.0. Though the file was renamed, the sound within was not modified.