Request: Automatically create/refresh "update_example.ini"

[dshadoff]

New feature request:
As part of the run of the update script, it would be useful to spool the user init section to a file on the SDCard - say, "update_example.ini" (so as not to overwrite any existing "update.ini").

This would provide users with an at-their-fingertips version of the current available options to copy, select, etc. without needing to search for the github repository and the specific script, and copy/paste a bunch of script code (the defines).

This would make it easier for programmers, and possible for non-programmers... especially helpful when one of the options is causing grief (such as parallel_update = "true")

[Locutus73]

That is an easy implementation (the core_manager.sh already does that), but there's a drawback: users, seeing the example, would customize it. Now, since that example would be a snapshot of the existing settings when the updater was first executed, it would contain the defaults in that particular moment in time, overriding new defaults.
i.e. last week I changed the PARALLEL_UPDATE="true" to PARALLEL_UPDATE="false", so users with no specific value in the ini will get the new default; users with a customized update_example.ini wouldn't benefit this new default tho, overriding all default values.

[dshadoff]

The user would not be compelled to create an update.ini from the update_example.ini (similar to how mister.ini works), but I understand that you see a temptation. However, it will be more likely to add new defines to the script than to change existing values, so the likelihood of issues is not so high. Most had already created such a file to override controversial settings which had existed in the past.

If you still worry that they will copy the whole example blindly rather than just overrides, perhaps put a comment at the top of the file, indicating to grab only overrides ? In any case, they will need to view the file to edit the contents.

[Locutus73]

The updater could create the ini example with all parameters commented: so users could easily copy the example but they would have to uncomment all parameters they want to override. Then it could overwrite the example each time a new updater is released.
I like it, I'll implement this function.

In the end I'll implement a dialog based text user interface for customizing the most important settings (similar to the MiSTer ini editor), but in the meantinme this will be very useful.

Thank you for your idea.