[utopian-io] ips-util - Python package for manipulating IPS patches

in #utopian-io6 years ago

Background

The International Patching System (IPS) patch format is a historically popular distribution format for ROM hacks. It's a very simple format, and a number of tools exist for creating IPS patches from binary data. I wanted to be able to create IPS patches programatically in Python scripts, however, and no existing library provided that support. So I made one.

I got enough testing and polish done on the library that I chose to upload it to PyPI as a formal Python package. As such, a released version can be acquired by any Python user with pip install ips-util.

Links

Usage notes

(Pretty much straight from the README.)

To create a patch, using existing source and target binary files:

> ips_util create "Super Mario World.smc" "Super Mario World [1337357_h4x_3v4r].smc" -o 1337_p47ch.ips

To apply a patch to a binary file:

> ips_util apply 1337_p47ch.ips "Super Mario World.smc" -o w00t.smc

To dump the contents of a patch:

> ips_util trace 1337_p47ch.ips

The package can also be used within Python scripts to build IPS patches manually, as follows:

from ips_util import Patch

def this_is_my_patch():
  patch = Patch()
  
  patch.add_record(0x1234, 999.to_bytes(2, byteorder='little')) # Max out some stat
  patch.add_rle_record(0x5678, b'\xea', 0x10)                   # NOP out a bunch of code
  
  with open('gavroche.ips', 'w+b') as f:
    f.write(patch.encode())

Testing

The package includes unit tests (contained in the ips_util/tests/test_patch.py script) to verify design requirements and some common edge cases in IPS format:

Manually created patches

  • Verify that a basic patch produces the desired result (test_patch_core)
  • Verify that a change made past the end of the original data will pad the result data as needed (test_patch_padding)
  • Verify that the truncation syntax used by some IPS tools functions as intended (test_patch_truncation)
  • Verify that the library generates an error when the starting address of a patch record is exactly 0x454f46 ('EOF') (test_patch_eof_edge_case)

Patches created from source and target binary data (the Patch.create() API)

  • Verify that the patch created from binary data reproduces the desired target data when applied (test_create_equal_length)
  • Verify that creating a patch correctly handles padding when the target data is longer than the source data (test_create_padded_length)
    • ... even when the padded data contains only zeros. (test_create_padded_length_all_zero)
  • Verify that creating a patch correctly handles truncation when the target data is shorter than the source data (test_create_truncated_length)
  • Verify that when a difference occurs at the address 0x454f46, the generated patch shifts that address to avoid the EOF error noted above (test_create_eof_edge_case)
  • Verify that an error is generated when the binary data provided is longer than the maximum supported address (test_create_address_overflow)
  • Verify that when creating a patch, differences longer than the maximum supported size are handled gracefully (test_create_size_overflow)
    • ... even when the record is run-length encoded (test_create_rle_size_overflow)
Sort:  

Thank you for your contribution. I am a fan of the vintage game consoles e.g. 8-bit super mario. So does this utility work on 8-bit ROM files?

From the documentation, I can see it is a complete and useful tool and good job for putting it on pip.

  1. It would be good to see some real ROM files in your test scripts e.g. you can put the ROM under testdata directories.
  2. When dealing with I/O, I feel that the try...catch is kinda missing.
  3. It is better to group your commits into a PR.
  4. If a binary file is empty, your Path.load will probably throw exception?
  5. You might want to add a command-line option to enable the debugger output.

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Thank you for your review, @justyy! Keep up the good work!

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