CLI Arguments

All Zaparoo Core distributions ship with a common command line interface (CLI) that can be used to interact with the API. This interface is the same on every platform that Zaparoo works on, and can be safely used as a scripting target.

The name of the Zaparoo core binary may differ slightly between platforms. The examples on this page will target MiSTer which ships with a binary named zaparoo.sh, whereas Windows ships with a binary named Zaparoo.exe. Functionally they're the same, just replace the filename in the examples.

If a platform's binary displays a GUI when run without arguments, the GUI will not be display when at least one of these flags are enabled.

Help

Flag: -help
Argument: none (boolean switch)
Example: ./zaparoo.sh -help

The most important one. This will output a list of all available command line flags along with a brief summary of each.

Version

Flag: -version
Argument: none (boolean switch)
Example: ./zaparoo.sh -version

Outputs this Zaparoo binary's build version (not the currently started API service).

API Request

Flag: -api
Argument: string
Example: ./tapzaparooto.sh -api 'launch:{"text":"**launch.system:menu"}'

Sends a single request to the Zaparoo API, waits for a response and then outputs the result body of that response.

Launch

Flag: -launch
Argument: string
Example: ./zaparoo.sh -launch "**launch.random:arcade"

Sends the string argument to the API as a launch command, as if a token with that text on it was scanned.

Write

Flag: -write
Argument: string
Example: ./zaparoo.sh -write "SNES/MyGame.sfc"

If a reader is physically connected to the device and has the capability to write to a token, try to write the given string to that token. Reports an error if the token couldn't be written and times out after 30 seconds.