Usage of batocera-settings

batocera-settings is a command-line tool that can work with regular config files to read/write its content, useful for scripting (like say you need to change the config based on what machine you have the drive plugged into). The /userdata/system/batocera.conf contains most of the machine's settings and follows batocera.conf's regular syntax.

When manually editing the batocera.conf file:

• Use ## This is a text comment for text comments.
• Use #enable.godmode=hallelujah for commenting values.
• Describe content and functions in comments when adding them for future reference.
• It's recommended to add content in their appropriate sections, but not strictly required.

Down here is a small excerpt of an example config file

# ------------ B - Network ------------ #
## Set system hostname
system.hostname=BATOCERA
## Activate wifi (0,1)
wifi.enabled=0
## Wifi SSID (string)
#wifi.ssid=new ssid
## Wifi KEY (string)
## after rebooting the batocera.linux, the "new key" is replace by a hidden value "enc:xxxxx"
## you can edit the "enc:xxxxx" value to replace by a clear value, it will be updated again at the following reboot
## Escape your special chars (# ; $) with a backslash : $ => \$
#wifi.key=new key

batocera-setting-get and batocera-setting-set is utilized by parameters parsed. The old batocera-settings itself was a relic of RecalBox times. FunFact: Because batocera-settings is based on C-code, it's much faster then the old python-script.

As batocera-settings is more modern and supports reading/writing values. For these examples, replace the contents in the square brackets with your intended setting (and don't include the square brackets themselves).

• Synthax:
  • batocera-settings-get -f [CONFIG_FILE] [KEY]
  • batocera-settings-set -f [CONFIG_FILE] [KEY] [VALUE]

• BATOCERA usage
  • batocera-settings-get [key] read key from batocera.conf
  • batocera-settings-set [key] [value] write value key=value to batocera.conf
  • batocera-settings-get -f [file] [key] read value key from file
• BATOCERA board-specific usage (added in Batocera v36)
  • batocera-settings-get-master [key] read key from /usr/share/batocera/sysconfigs/batocera.conf.${BOARD_MODEL}

Whenever batocera-settings-set or batocera-settings-get is called from a script you will receive an exit code number. This will help to identify errors (for debugging you can use the status command for more useful output).

File and Key/Values error
Error Code	Error code explaination	Troubleshooting
EC 0	No Error, value found	You made it!
EC 1	General error, e.g. command line error	Check your command line for correct parameters

I present here some short scripts, to show you how to make batocera-settings work in your script. As I'm more confident in shell scripting I give you just some small examples in shell script.

1. bash: Obtain value
2. bash: Activate UART in /boot/config.txt
3. bash: Set a new key
4. python: Obtain a value

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

obtain_value.sh

#!/bin/bash
#This is an example file how batocera-settings-get can be utilized
#to read a value out from /userdata/system/batocera.conf
 
value="$(batocera-settings-get power.switch.device)"
ret=$?
if [[ $ret -eq 0 ]]; then
    echo "Power Switch detected: '$value'"
else
    echo "No Power Switch detected!"
fi

activate_uart.sh

#!/bin/bash
#This is an example file how batocera-settings-set can be utilized
#to activate UART in /boot/config.txt
 
# Check status of file and make it writeable
[[ -w /boot/config.txt ]] && batocera-es-swissknife --remount
 
batocera-settings-set -f /boot/config.txt enable_uart 1
ret=$?
if [[ $ret -eq 0 ]]; then
    echo "UART activated, uncommented enable_uart"
    batocera-settings-set -f /boot/config.txt enable_uart 1
else
    echo "Key: enable_uart not found"
    echo "Not a Raspberry System?"
fi

set_new_key.sh

#!/bin/bash
#This is an example file how batocera-settings-set can be utilized
#to set a new key in /userdata/system/batocera.conf
 
value=$(batocera-settings-set core.PS5.emulator SONY5EVER)
ret=$?
if [[ $ret -eq 0 ]]; then
    echo "PS5 core enabled!"
else
    echo "Another error occurred!"
fi

obtain_value.py

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#This is an example file how batocera-settings-get can be utilized
#to read a value out from /userdata/system/batocera.conf with python
 
import subprocess
 
value = (subprocess.check_output(['batocera-settings-get', 'power.switch.device']))
if value:
    print "Power Switch Detected: ", value
else:
    print "No power switch detected!"

Till B30 batocera-settings used synthax was in general batocera-settings –command <load> –key <value> the command was under active development and more features were added. To get the full commandset of your version just run batocera-settings from terminal or SSH. If you use BATOCERA version 5.22 and earlier you will see the forked reminiscene - here the settings command was a python script that was started with python /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/configgen/settings/batoceraSettings.py