eMuleBB Frozen Surfaces¶
This document records product areas that are intentionally frozen in current
main. If this document conflicts with older active item wording, this document
wins for current support and test-scope decisions.
Policy¶
Frozen surfaces receive no product support, no feature work, no bug-fix
commitment, and no new test coverage. They are not release-gated behavior
surfaces. Existing code may remain only as compile-preserved legacy baggage
through the 0.7.x legacy support line. Existing incidental tests may be
removed when they stop serving supported behavior.
Preserved does not mean supported. For 0.7.3 and later 0.7.x LTSC
(long-term servicing) maintenance, some frozen legacy code, resource entries,
profile keys, or old menu paths may remain so the release can preserve
compatibility while keeping risk low. That retention is a transition state, not a
promise that the surface will receive fixes, documentation, automation, or release
proof. The 0.7.x LTSC line keeps this compile-preserved legacy; the removals
below happen only on 0.8.0/main.
0.8.0 is the explicit frozen-surface removal release. The frozen areas below are
scheduled for removal in the 0.8.0 Lean line (operator decision
2026-06-24) through their tracked REF-* items — see
MFC-0.8.0-LEAN-REMOVAL-PLAN — with proof
focused on supported behavior that shares infrastructure.
Do not add compatibility layers, shims, diagnostics, harnesses, UI automation,
or parser/golden coverage for these surfaces unless the explicit task is to
remove the surface or prove that its removal did not damage supported behavior.
In 0.7.x, do not fix frozen-surface bugs unless the issue affects supported
shared infrastructure, security, or app stability.
Frozen Areas¶
| Area | Current decision |
|---|---|
| Archive preview and archive recovery | Frozen. Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-052. |
| IRC and IRC-adjacent chat UI | Frozen. Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-025. |
| Legacy Scheduler and scheduler preferences | Frozen. Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-025. |
| SMTP/email notifications | Frozen. Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-025 (shares the mbedTLS decouple with the TLS removal). |
| SAPI text-to-speech notifications | Frozen. Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-025 (operator decision 2026-06-24 supersedes the prior "keep best-effort SAPI" stance). |
| First-run connection wizard | Frozen. Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-025. |
| Legacy splash screen | Frozen. Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-025. Targets the legacy splash path only — not LifecycleProgressDlg, which the 0.8.0 startup slice (REF-058) keeps as the startup-progress loader. |
| Legacy WebServer HTML templates and page UI | Frozen. Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-043. The REST listener/routing is kept (see Supported Boundaries). |
| WebServer HTTPS / TLS (mbedTLS) | Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-060 (operator decision 2026-06-24): mbedTLS/TF-PSA-crypto is dropped and REST serves plaintext HTTP, bound to the local control-plane address only. Supersedes the prior "keep HTTPS/TLS" boundary below. |
| Proxy support | Frozen. Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 via REF-051 (interleaves with the WSAPoll network-thread port). |
| 3D preview control / id3lib MP3 metadata | Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 (operator decision 2026-06-24), folded into REF-055. id3lib goes because MediaInfo.dll becomes the sole MP3-metadata path. |
| Sound / WAV event notifications | Scheduled for removal in 0.8.0 (operator decision 2026-06-24) via REF-025. The PlaySound event-alert system + its prefs go; peer chat is kept (only the audio alerts are removed). |
SOCKS parser/handshake hardening findings remain intentionally deferred — proxy is removed, not hardened.
Supported Boundaries¶
- REST
/api/v1, qBittorrent-compatible/api/v2, Torznab, aMuTorrent, and Arr integrations remain supported where documented by the REST contract and release campaigns. - WebServer listener safety, allowed-IP checks, and REST routing remain supported
because they carry the controller API. This does not revive the legacy HTML
template UI. HTTPS/TLS is no longer supported as of the
0.8.0Lean line (operator decision 2026-06-24,REF-060): REST serves plaintext HTTP and must bind to the local control-plane address only (X_LOCAL_IP/ loopback- equivalent), never a public or VPN-tunnel interface. On the0.7.xLTSC line HTTPS/TLS stays as compile-preserved behavior. - Category behavior remains supported. Scheduler behavior does not.
- Friend/source dialog behavior remains supported where covered separately.
IRC/chat UI behavior does not. The IRC chat is removed in
0.8.0(REF-025); the eD2K peer chat (ChatWnd/ChatSelector/SmileySelector+CaptchaGenerator) is retained-but-unsupported (operator decision 2026-06-24 keeps it) — kept, not removed, but no support/test commitment. - Native MiniMule behavior is owned by eMuleBB and is not part of the frozen legacy MiniMule/IE-host removal bucket.
- PeerCache is already removed; the
0.8.0Lean line only purges its leftover deadIDS_PEERCACHE_*resource strings.
Release Test Rule¶
Release campaigns must not require evidence for frozen surfaces. Test manifests may mention them only as explicitly deferred or frozen exclusions. New release coverage should target supported protocol, persistence, controller, live-wire, packaging, and resource/localization behavior instead.