Settings and profiles

Preferences

The bar at the top of the window holds the Profile menu, with Save as profile… and Load a profile… (see named profiles), and the Preferences… button, which opens the preferences window. Its changes apply at once; Close closes it.

• Interface:
  • Language: English, Français or Español. At the first launch, RomSieve takes the language of the system (English for any other language). The whole interface switches at once, including the lines already written in the log and the statuses of the table.
  • Theme: Light, Dark, or System (follows the setting of the operating system).
• Updates: Check for updates on startup and Check Now (see updates).
• File Analysis: CRC computation (see performance settings). Unlike the other preferences, it is a sort option: it is saved in the profiles, and loading a profile can change it.
• About: the version of RomSieve and its license (free software under the GNU GPL v3, provided without any warranty). Third-Party Licenses opens THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt, shipped next to RomSieve: the copyright notices and license texts of the components it contains (see installation). If no application opens it, RomSieve gives its path, to open it with a text editor.

Advanced options

In the Collection step, the Advanced Options button, right of Scan subdirectories recursively, opens a panel over the page with the identification settings that most collections never need: Inspect archives (ZIP, 7z, RAR), Verify SHA-1, Verify archive contents and Identify CHDs by their name. Verify copied files is a box of the Output step, below Conflicts. Click outside the panel to close it.

The button shows how many of these options differ from their default value, for instance Advanced Options (2 changed), and its tooltip names them: an option that acts does not go unnoticed.

Saved settings

Your folders, filters, 1G1R choices, pattern, language, theme and window layout are saved in config.json when you close RomSieve and before each real sort, and restored at the next launch (see where RomSieve stores its files). RomSieve always opens on the Collection step, whatever the step shown when it was closed.

To go back to the default settings, close RomSieve and delete config.json.

An unreadable config.json (edited by hand into invalid JSON, for instance) does not stop RomSieve: it opens with the default settings and says so with a warning in the log. As these settings will replace the file when it closes, RomSieve first keeps a copy next to it, config.unreadable-<date>-<time>.json. To get your settings back, close RomSieve, fix the copy and rename it config.json. If even the copy fails (file locked by another program), RomSieve does not replace the file for the whole session.

Named profiles

A profile stores the sort options of the settings steps (folders, DAT, mode, filters, 1G1R, pattern...) under a name, to switch between several collections or configurations in one click. It does not store the language, the theme or the window layout, but it does store the CRC computation of the preferences window, which is a sort option: loading a profile can change it.

• Save as profile…: saves the current options. The dialog opens in the profiles folder next to config.json; give the profile a name (for instance Amiga 1G1R.json). RomSieve then shows the command that uses it from the command line: romsieve-cli run --profile "Amiga 1G1R".
• Load a profile…: replaces the options of the steps with those of a profile. An option absent from the file takes its default value. Loading a profile with another source folder forgets the manual 1G1R choices.

Profiles are ordinary JSON files, in the same format as config.json: you can copy them to another computer, keep them under version control, or edit them by hand. Only the profiles of the profiles folder can be used with --profile; a profile saved elsewhere can still be loaded from the interface.

config.json and the profiles hold the version of their format, config_version. A file without it (written by hand) is read in the current format: an option it lacks keeps its default value. A file written by a newer version of RomSieve is read with a warning, in the log of the interface or in the output of the command line: the options this version does not know are ignored, and the config.json it saves no longer contains them.

A profile name may contain letters, digits, spaces, dashes and parentheses, but no / \ : * ? " < > | and no reserved Windows names (CON, NUL...).

Updates

RomSieve can tell you when a new version is published on GitHub:

• Check Now, in the preferences window, checks at once, and tells you whether you already have the latest version.
• Check for updates on startup (enabled by default) checks at most once a day when RomSieve starts, in the background. Nothing is shown unless a new version is available, nor if GitHub cannot be reached.

When a new version is available, a banner appears at the top of the window:

• View release opens the page of the release in your browser, with its notes and its downloads.
• Ignore hides the banner and no longer announces this version at startup; the next one will be announced. Check Now still shows it.
• The cross hides the banner until the next check.

RomSieve never downloads or installs anything by itself. A check only asks the GitHub API for the latest published release; the request carries the version of RomSieve and no information about your collection. Pre-releases are not announced. Uncheck Check for updates on startup to keep RomSieve from going online unless you ask it to.

Performance settings

Two options affect speed only, never the result:

• CRC computation, in the preferences window: number of files hashed at the same time (1 for a hard disk drive, more for an SSD or a NAS).
• Inspect archives (ZIP, 7z, RAR), in the advanced options of the Collection step: disable it if your archives are not ROM containers, to save time.

Three other options trade speed for safety: Verify SHA-1 and Verify archive contents (advanced options of the Collection step), and Verify copied files (Output step) (see Naming conventions and DAT files and Destination and transfers).