# User preserve list (`preserve.ini`)

**Update mode only.** During OmniNX update cleanup (selective deletion), any path listed here with a truthy value is **not** deleted. Paths that would remove a preserved path (parent directory) are skipped as well.

- **File:** `sd:/config/omninx/preserve.ini`
- If missing or invalid, behavior is unchanged (full update deletion list applies).

## Format

Section **`[Preserve]`** (case-sensitive). Each line is **path as key**, **enable flag as value**:

```ini
[Preserve]
'sd:/ROMs'=1
sd:/switch/MyHomebrewFolder=0
sd:/backup/tools=1
```

### Path (key)

- Must start with **`sd:/`** (after optional quoting).
- **Optional** matching **single** or **double** quotes around the key are stripped (helps Ultrahand `set-ini-val` and readability).
- Trailing slashes are normalized away (except the volume root).
- **`sd:/` alone** is rejected (too broad).
- Minimum useful length after `sd:/` is enforced (at least one more character).

### Value (enable)

**On** if the value starts with `1`, `t`, `T`, `y`, or `Y` (e.g. `1`, `true`, `yes`). Anything else is **off** (path ignored).

### Limits

- Up to **96** preserved paths; longer keys truncated internally (~224 bytes per path).
- Duplicate paths after normalization are skipped.
- The list is allocated on the **heap** only while update cleanup runs (not a large static buffer in IPL IRAM), to avoid crowding hardware-adjacent memory used by Joy-Con UART and similar peripherals.

## Overlap rules

For each delete candidate from `deletion_lists_update.h`, deletion is skipped if it **overlaps** any enabled preserve path:

- Same path, or
- Delete target is **inside** a preserved tree (preserved path is a prefix), or
- Delete target is an **ancestor** of a preserved path (deleting it would remove the preserved data).

So preserving `sd:/ROMs` also blocks deleting `sd:/ROMs/title` if that were on the delete list, and blocks deleting `sd:/` if `sd:/ROMs` is preserved.

## Ultrahand

You can toggle entries with:

```text
set-ini-val sd:/config/omninx/preserve.ini Preserve 'sd:/ROMs' 1
```

and `0` to disable. Use the same quoted path in the key argument as in your INI.

## Clean install

**Not used** in clean install mode. `preserve.ini` is only read for **update** cleanup (`update_mode_cleanup`).