The simulation table

After a simulation or a sort, the Results step is shown: its Simulation Preview tab shows one row per analyzed file. It is the place to check a result before writing anything.

Columns

Click a column header to sort the table; sorting by status also orders the rows by their reason. Hover a row to see a tooltip with the size, the checksum, the reason for the status, the companion tracks of an optical set, or the details of a CHD.

The Columns button, at the right of the search box, shows or hides every column but Source Name and Status; Default Columns restores the initial choice. The Calculated Target Path takes the room left free. Your choice is kept from one session to the next.

Related files

Some rows carry other files with them: the tracks of a .cue or .gdi descriptor, the CHDs of a MAME set, the other files of a DAT game. A badge after the source name counts them by kind: + 2 tracks, + 1 CHD, + 3 files. The Related column, shown from the Columns menu, gives their number; sorting by it brings together the rows without any, then those with the most. The Selected Row Details panel lists them.

Grouping by game

The Group by game button, at the left of Columns, gathers the files of each game under a header row. The header gives the title of the game and its number of files, (3), or (1/3) when a chip or the search hides some, the kept release (Kept: …), its target and its status. Below the header come the kept release (all its disks, in order), then the other releases. The table thus matches 1G1R: you see at a glance which release won over which others.

• A game of a single file stays a plain row, without a header.
• The files without an identified game (non-conforming names) are gathered at the end, under No identified game.
• Sorting by a column orders the games by their kept release (or their first file), and the other releases of each game; the kept release always stays first in its game.
• The chevron of a header folds or unfolds the game. With the keyboard, on a selected header: left arrow to fold, right arrow to unfold, Space to switch. Right-clicking a header offers Fold this game (or Unfold this game), Fold all games and Unfold all games.
• During a run, the rows come in the order of processing; the games are grouped at the end.

Folded games stay folded from one simulation of the same source to the next. The view you choose is kept from one session to the next.

Selected row details

Below the table, the Selected Row Details panel (click its title to unfold it) shows for the selected row its source name, the full path of the source file and of the target, its status with the whole reason (filter, 1G1R decision, identification by name) and its checksum: the CRC32 of a file, the SHA-1 of a CHD (the one that identifies it in the DAT, with its version, media and tracks under CHD), nothing when it was not computed (a file absent from the DAT) or does not exist (a MAME archive, which is a whole set). For a MAME set, the MAME set line tells which machine it stands for and whether it is complete, then what it lacks (ROMs, CHDs, BIOS or devices missing from the source), the set a split clone depends on, the other sets it needs, the clones a merged set holds and the files the DAT does not know: brubber: complete, mslug: complete (needs neogeo). A second line describes the cabinet of the machine (screen, players, controls, buttons) when the DAT gives it. The Used by line counts the machines that take ROMs from the set, according to the DAT (its clones, the games of a BIOS, the machines that use a device), those in the source and those kept, which it names: 389 machine(s), 389 of them in the source; 120 kept: 1944, 19xx, armwar and 117 others. Under Related files, it lists the files transferred with it, each with its size, its target (with its new name when a collision renamed it) and, for a CHD, its version, media and tracks. While some games are unchecked, a Selection line also tells whether the row will be sorted: Checked, Unchecked, or Sorted with the set …, which needs it for a MAME set taken along by the checked games; the tooltip of the row repeats it. The status always describes the whole simulation, the Selection line the partial sort. The texts can be selected and copied. The panel is folded by default; it stays open or closed from one session to the next.

Status chips

The banner above the table counts the files: Total, Kept, Excluded, Non-conforming, Duplicates. Click a chip to show only those rows; click several to combine them; Total shows everything again.

While some games are unchecked, a Selection chip counts the checked games (non-conforming files included). It does not change the other chips: an unchecked game stays Kept, it is the release the sort would keep, you are just not sorting it this time. Click Selection to show only the rows the selection sorts (with the required MAME sets); it combines with the status chips and the search. A row unchecked while this filter is on stays shown, so that you can check it again, until the next change of filter.

With a DAT, the banner also shows the Completion of your collection (ROMs of the DAT found / total).

Volume

After a run, Volume gives two sizes: on the left, all the scanned files; on the right, after the arrow, what the sort writes to the destination, that is the kept files and the non-conforming files (isolated in _unmatched). It tells you whether the sorted collection fits on a USB drive or an SD card. Its tooltip gives the exact size in bytes.

• Sizes are in binary units: 1 GB = 1,024 MB = 1,073,741,824 bytes. A drive sold as "64 GB" (64 billion bytes) holds about 59.6 of them.
• In ZIP mode, the sizes are those before compression: the volume is followed by max., the archives take less.
• Hard and symbolic links take almost no space: the volume is that of the linked files.
• What the destination already contains (Add to a non-empty destination) is not counted.
• While some games are unchecked, the right size is that of the sort of the checked ones, followed by (selection), and the FAT32 warning only counts their files.

FAT32 warning

Many USB drives and SD cards are formatted as FAT32, which does not accept files of 4 GB or more. When the sort writes such files (a DVD image, a large CD track), the banner shows ⚠ FAT32: N files > 4 GB, and the log gives a single warning with their number and up to three names, the largest first. The tooltip names the largest ones too. Format the medium as exFAT or NTFS if your hardware reads them.

In ZIP mode, an archive is measured before compression: it may still fit. With hard or symbolic links, no warning is shown, since links cannot be created on FAT32 anyway.

Room in the destination

Before writing the first file, the simulation as the sort compare what they write on the disk of the destination with the room left there. When room is lacking, the log says so, with both volumes, and the confirmation of the sort repeats it: a sort that lacks room stops as soon as the destination is full (see Troubleshooting). Links and files moved within a disk take no room; in ZIP mode, files are counted before compression, and files already in the destination are counted too: the volume counted is the most the sort may write. The room of a network share is not always known: nothing is reported then.

Non-empty destination

When kept files are already in the destination before the sort (a previous sort, another tool) and the conflicts are set to Skip, they are not written again: they count among the Duplicates, and the banner also shows N already in the destination (not written again). Their row says Already in the destination (not written again), the log adds a single warning, and the command line adds a line to its summary. A MAME set is never renamed: with Auto-rename (suffix _01), it is skipped too.

To write them, choose an empty destination, purge it (its content goes to quarantine, and undoing the sort puts it back; see Destination and transfers), or set the conflicts to Overwrite. Two files of the same run that lead to the same target are still plain duplicates.

Searching

Type part of a title in Search title: the table is filtered as you type, with suggestions. The ✕ button clears the search. The search also looks at the source name and, for a MAME set, at its category (shooter, flying vertical). The detail panel gives the category of a set at the start of its second line.

Choosing a 1G1R winner by hand

When 1G1R does not keep the release you prefer, right-click a row:

The table and the counters are updated at once, without analyzing the files again. A release chosen by hand shows the Forced badge next to its status, and so does the header of its game in the grouped view: right-clicking that header offers Restore automatic 1G1R choice for this game. Your choices are kept for the next simulations and used by the real sort; they are forgotten when you choose another source folder.

With MAME, a set kept only because a kept set needs it to run (its BIOS, a device), whereas a filter or 1G1R excluded it, shows the Required badge next to its status, and so does the header of its game in the grouped view; its reason names the kept sets that need it (the first three, then their number: the sets 2020bb, 3countb, aof and 149 others need it to run).

Successive simulations

When you simulate the same source again (after changing a filter, for instance), RomSieve updates the existing rows instead of reloading the table: your selection, sort order and scroll position are kept. New rows, and rows whose status, target or reason changed, are marked, and the Changed chip shows only them. Hover a marked row to see its previous status and target, or its previous reason when only the reason changed (another release won, another rule applies).

A real sort, another source, or an interrupted simulation start again from an empty table.

Simulate, sort, export

The actions are at the bottom of the window, whatever the step shown:

After a simulation, a sentence sums up what the sort will do: the mode, the number of kept files (and of non-conforming files, isolated in _unmatched), the volume written and the destination, for example "Copy 11 files + 1 non-conforming (14.61 MB) to D:\Retro\Amiga\Sorted". Changing a setting hides it until the next simulation; a real sort remains possible without a simulation, with the same confirmations.

The progress bar, the number of files processed and the remaining time are shown above these buttons, and only while a run is in progress. Next to them, a line names the current step: Looking for files: 16277 found while the source is listed (minutes for a large collection on a network share), Loading the DAT, Analyzing or Identifying followed by the file name, Selecting the versions..., then Computing the target paths... for a simulation, or Copying, Moving, Hard link, Symbolic link or Compressing followed by the file name for a real sort.

The Change the settings button, left of the banner, leads back to the last settings step shown. The table is neither reloaded nor emptied when you change steps: selection, sort order, scroll position and folded games are kept. If a setting changes after a simulation, the Results step says so ("22 files, out of date") until the next simulation.

Sorting part of the simulation

To copy only a few games (to an SD card, for a test), filter the table, then open the menu of the arrow next to Start Sorting and choose Sort the Checked Games Shown. Only the checked games among the rows shown are transferred, after a search or with status chips (the scroll position of the table does not matter), and each one as a whole: all its disks (disks borrowed from another release included), the tracks of its descriptor, its .m3u playlist and the MAME sets it needs. Without a filter, these are all the checked games. A row that the sort does not write (an excluded release, a duplicate) does not choose its game, and a required MAME set shown alone is never sorted without the game that needs it. A non-conforming file goes to _unmatched only if its own row is shown and checked (and never when Isolate non-conforming files in _unmatched is unchecked).

The entry is available after a simulation of the current settings, as soon as a checked game is shown. Under its name, it says what it will write, with the number of games and files, the volume and the destination, and, if it leaves games out, that this is a part of the simulation. When it is not available, it says why. Files too large for FAT32 among them are counted in the same sentence, which also gives the room left in the destination when it is not enough.

Choosing games

Each row starts with a check box, which says whether its game is sorted. After a simulation, every game the sort would write is checked: Start Sorting sorts the whole simulation. Unchecking a file leaves out its whole game (all its rows are unchecked), and, in the view grouped by game, unchecking a header leaves out all its files. A non-conforming file, which goes to _unmatched apart from its game, has a box of its own, even when its name gives its game: unchecking it leaves the kept release of its game checked, and the reverse. To change several rows at once, select them with Ctrl or Shift + click, then press Space, or right-click them and choose Check the Selected Rows or Uncheck the Selected Rows. Check All, above the table, acts on the games of the rows shown (after a search or with status chips): it is checked when they all are, partly checked when only some of them are, and a click unchecks them all (when it is checked or partly checked) or checks them all. Without a search or a status chip, unchecking it empties the selection. Next to it, the number of games selected counts every checked game, shown or not, and says how many of them are hidden ("12 games selected, 9 of them hidden"): the hidden games stay checked and are sorted too. It counts games, not files: a game of several files (the sides of a tape, the disks of a set) counts once, so it can be lower than the number of kept files in the banner. A game the sort would not write (all its releases excluded) cannot be checked, and neither can an excluded release of a game: its box stays empty, since only the kept release is sorted.

As soon as a game is unchecked, Start Sorting becomes Sort Selection: it sorts only the checked games, and the sentence next to it, the Selection chip and the volume of the banner describe them. With nothing checked, there is nothing to sort. To sort the whole simulation anyway, check every game again, or choose Sort the Whole Simulation in the menu of the arrow. The unchecked games are kept when you change the search, the status chips or the grouping, and when you simulate the same source again, whose new games arrive checked; every game is checked again after you choose another source, and after a real sort. The rows of a real sort show its results and cannot be checked.

The whole collection is analyzed again, as for a full sort: the release kept for a game is the one the simulation shows, never one chosen because of what is shown. If a game changed since the simulation (another kept release, a missing disk) or is no longer in the source, it is reported in the log and nothing is written for it; the rest of the selection is sorted. The files left out are not touched; they are counted as Not selected in the summary of the log. A MAME game takes with it the sets it needs to run (its BIOS, its devices), even unchecked. Their box stays checked and greyed out while a checked game needs them (its tooltip names the checked games that need them), the counter adds them (1 game selected + 1 required set, the tooltip names them), and so does the sentence next to the button (Copy 1 game and the required set neogeo (2 files)…).

A partial sort never purges the destination: it always adds to it, whatever the option chosen, and says so in its confirmation. It is recorded in the journal like any sort, and Undo Last Sort reverses it. The rows shown are never saved, neither in the settings nor in a profile, and neither are the checked games.

The operation log

The Operation Log tab lists every step of the run, with a level:

The log is not emptied between two runs: the lines of a simulation stay above those of the sort that follows it. They are told apart by their level, PLANNED for the simulation, OK for the files actually written; a game left out of a partial sort has no line of its own.

The log keeps the last 2,000 lines; the Clear Messages button of the tab (or its context menu) empties it, without touching anything on disk. It follows the language of the interface, even for the lines already written.