Steam-Link-PS5/docs/RECIPES.md

Capability recipes

The root app intentionally proves only the smallest graphical baseline. Add capabilities one at a time, keep their lifetime explicit, and test the resulting artifact on every supported firmware. The native linker discovers referenced platform imports from the public SDK stubs; no firmware offsets belong in app code.

Persistent files under /download0

Set a positive downloadDataSize in sce_sys/param.json. Write a complete temporary file, flush it, and rename it over the stable path so interruption cannot leave a partially written configuration:

const char temporary[] = "/download0/settings.tmp";
const char current[] = "/download0/settings.bin";

int descriptor = open(temporary, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC, 0600);
// Loop on write() until every byte is stored, then fsync() and close().
if (rename(temporary, current) != 0) {
    // Preserve the previous current file and report the failure.
}

Use versioned, bounded records and validate every length before loading them. Treat /download0 as title-local persistent application data, not as a path to its host backing image. Provide export/import for state that must survive title removal or cache management.

Controller input

The direct sequence validated by the project is:

1. initialize User Service and obtain the initial or foreground user;
2. call scePadInit() and scePadOpen(user, standard_port, 0, nullptr);
3. once per frame, drain scePadRead(handle, records, 64) and use the newest timestamped record;
4. close the pad during an orderly application shutdown.

Use scePadReadState() only when the latest cached state is sufficient. Do not mix it with batch reads in the same frame, because both enter the same read path. Platform pad structures are ABI declarations, so take them from a reviewed public header or use SDL instead of recreating layouts from memory.

Networking and TLS

For sockets, include the public SDK's standard networking headers and follow the usual bounded BSD-socket lifecycle: create, set timeouts, connect, loop on partial send/receive, and close on every error path. Keep network work off the render/input thread.

For production HTTPS or TLS, use the maintained OpenSSL port rather than a custom protocol implementation:

make PACBREW_PACKAGES=openssl

Resolve hostnames and certificate failures explicitly. Never disable peer or hostname verification in a distributed application.

For HTTPS with libcurl, follow libcurl in a PS5 native app: take console_curl.h and console_curl.c from the update check, add PACBREW_PACKAGES += libcurl and APP_WRAP_SYMBOLS += fcntl, and call console_curl_setup(easy) on every handle (no signals, the console's certificate list, non-blocking sockets). Its update_check_fetch function is a complete GET. APP_WRAP_SYMBOLS takes any list of symbols: each S then resolves to your __wrap_S, and __real_S to the original.

For a small request without any extra library, the same file built with UPDATE_CHECK_USE_SCEHTTP uses the console's own sceHttp with certificate verification on. It has run on hardware in a sandboxed title; an elevated app can't use it (sceSsl then rejects public certificates with 0x8095f00c).

AudioOut

The hardware-proven baseline initializes AudioOut, obtains the active user, and opens the main output at 48 kHz. Feed complete interleaved PCM grains and let sceAudioOutOutput() provide pacing. A 256-frame grain is a practical starting point. Keep decode/resample work outside the submission loop, bound the queue, and output silence on underrun rather than reusing stale samples.

Treat the AudioOut handle as an RAII resource: finish or cancel pending output, close the handle, and release buffers in reverse initialization order.

SDL

SDL is the shortest route to a portable CPU-rendered app with events and audio. Fetch the pinned PacBrew sysroot and select its module only for builds that use it:

make pacbrew
make PACBREW_PACKAGES=sdl2

Check every SDL initialization stage separately—memory, video driver, events, renderer, and audio—so a loader/import failure is distinguishable from an SDL subsystem failure. Keep the root boilerplate independent of SDL so developers who need only VideoOut do not inherit the dependency.

A graphical user interface

The root app's CPU renderer is a proof of life, not a toolkit. For menus, lists, dialogs, forms and the rest, use the companion ps5-homebrew-ui: an OpenGL 4.6 kit with reusable components, themes, sound and a PC preview. It is built on this template, so an app can start from it directly or take its kit into an existing project. See User interface.

Adding a native library

Prefer a PacBrew module when available:

make pacbrew-list
make PACBREW_PACKAGES="sdl2 openssl"

For a project-owned archive, put headers and .a files in repository-relative directories and declare them explicitly:

make APP_INCLUDE_PATHS=vendor/include APP_STATIC_ARCHIVES=vendor/lib/libexample.a

Paths cannot contain spaces. Review every dependency's license and PS5 build profile before distributing the result.