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IPS file format
From SnesLab
This article is about the file format of IPS patches. Note that the address and length are stored in big endian.
Main format
- PATCH ASCII string, the header of the file
- (Records) Any number of records and/or RLE records
- EOF ASCII string, the footer of the file
- (Truncate) Truncate data is stored after the EOF
Record format
- Address (3 bytes) The start address of the data to modify
- Length (2 bytes) The length of the following data (greater than zero)
- Data ("Length" bytes) The data to be written to "Address"
RLE record format
An RLE record writes a single byte multiple times.
- Offset (3 bytes) The start address of the data to modify
- 0000 (2 bytes) Two 00 bytes
- Length (2 bytes) Number of times to repeat the following byte
- Byte (1 byte) The byte to be written "Length" times to "Address"
Truncate
A later version of SNESTool and some other IPS patchers (For example: Lunar IPS, NINJA) support a file truncate feature. The feature is an extension to the IPS format in the form of a 3-byte offset stored after the EOF. IPS patchers that support this will truncate the patched file, removing all data after the offset.