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Refactor & Task Roadmap

Branch: v0.72a-broadband-dev Last updated: 2026-04-13

This file consolidates all refactoring tasks, feature gaps, and actionable work items with globally unique identifiers. Items marked [DONE] are completed and kept for historical reference.

Revalidation note (2026-04-13): the current authoritative tree is workspaces\v0.72a\app\eMule-main. Earlier "done" claims for REFAC_012 and REFAC_014 came from non-authoritative branch notes and do not match the current code anymore, so those tasks are reopened here.

Task Index

ID Category Status Summary
REFAC_001 IRC Removal [DONE] Remove built-in IRC client (~5,300 LOC)
REFAC_002 ZIP Handling Planned Replace custom CZIPFile with zlib minizip
REFAC_003 GZIP Wrapper Deferred Inline or keep CGZIPFile wrapper
REFAC_004 MIME Detection [DONE] Expand GetMimeType magic-byte table
REFAC_005 MIME BZ2 Bug [DONE] Fix BZ2 signature matching bug
REFAC_006 MIME Buffer [DONE] Reduce buffer size, reorder detection
REFAC_007 MIME Forward Decl [DONE] Clean up PPgSecurity.cpp forward declaration
REFAC_008 MIME WebM/MKV Optional Disambiguate WebM vs MKV (EBML DocType)
REFAC_009 First-Start Socket [DONE] Remove startup wizard, unify socket init
REFAC_010 Property Store Exploratory Windows Property Store for file metadata
REFAC_011 Dead Code Sweep [DONE] Delete #if 0 blocks (~300-400 lines)
REFAC_012 PeerCache Opcodes Re-opened Remove defunct OP_PEERCACHE_* handlers
REFAC_013 Source Exchange v1 Planned Remove deprecated SX v1 branches
REFAC_014 Proxy Comments Re-opened Remove deadlake PROXYSUPPORT attribution noise
REFAC_015 Win95 Compat [DONE] Remove Windows 95/NT4 detection code
REFAC_016 Legacy INI Keys [DONE] Remove obsolete FileBufferSizePref/QueueSizePref reads
REFAC_017 ASSERT(0) Audit [PARTIAL] Convert "must be a bug" ASSERTs to real error handling
REFAC_018 Upload Compression [DONE] Audit upload-removal remnants and keep live protocol compression

REFAC_001 — Remove IRC Module [DONE]

Status: Completed (commits a639213, b981984) Lines removed: ~5,300 across 14 source files, 2 icons, ~60 string resources, ~25 preference keys

What was done

  • Deleted all 14 IRC source files (.cpp/.h pairs): IrcMain, IrcSocket, IrcWnd, IrcChannelTabCtrl, IrcChannelListCtrl, IrcNickListCtrl, PPgIRC
  • Removed IRC icon resources (IRC.ico, IRCClipboard.ico)
  • Removed IRC tab/window from EmuleDlg
  • Removed IRC toolbar button from MuleToolBarCtrl
  • Removed IRC preferences page from PreferencesDlg
  • Removed ~24 preference variables and accessors from Preferences.h/.cpp
  • Removed ~50 IDS_IRC* string resources from Resource.h and emule.rc
  • Removed menu command IDs from MenuCmds.h
  • Removed IRC context-menu entries from SharedFilesCtrl.cpp and ServerListCtrl.cpp
  • Removed help IDs from HelpIDs.h
  • Removed MAX_IRC_MSG_LEN from Opcodes.h

Remaining (minor)

4 string resources intentionally kept for WebServer/ChatSelector compatibility: IDS_IRC_CONNECT, IDS_IRC_DISCONNECT, IDS_IRC_PERFORM, IDS_IRC_ADDTOFRIENDLIST. These need renaming to generic labels in a future pass.

REFAC_002 — Replace Custom ZIP Reader with minizip

Status: Planned Effort: Low (3 consumer sites, well-documented migration) Files: ZIPFile.cpp/.h → delete; add minizip sources from emulebb-zlib/contrib/minizip/

Background

The codebase contains CZIPFile (~530 lines, origin: Shareaza 2002-2004), a hand-rolled ZIP central-directory parser + deflate extractor. This can be replaced by minizip (unzip.h) which is already present in the zlib dependency tree.

Consumers (3 call sites)

  1. IPFilterDlg.cpp — IP filter import from local .zip file
  2. PPgSecurity.cpp — IP filter download + extract from .zip
  3. OtherFunctions.cpp — Skin package (.zip) installation

Implementation phases

  1. Add unzip.c, ioapi.c, iowin32.c from emulebb-zlib/contrib/minizip/ to vcxproj
  2. Optionally write thin CMiniZipReader wrapper matching CZIPFile API surface
  3. Migrate all 3 consumer sites
  4. Delete ZIPFile.cpp/.h from project

Verification

  • [ ] Project compiles with minizip sources
  • [ ] IP filter import from .zip works (local file dialog)
  • [ ] IP filter download as .zip works (PPgSecurity)
  • [ ] Skin package installation works
  • [ ] ZIPFile.cpp/.h deleted, zero remaining references

REFAC_003 — Simplify or Keep GZIPFile Wrapper

Status: Deferred (low value) Effort: Trivial

CGZIPFile (~120 lines) is already a thin wrapper around zlib's gz* API. Recommendation: keep it — it's trivial, correct, and uses zlib directly. Only revisit if the ZIP refactor creates a natural opportunity to inline.

REFAC_004 — Expand GetMimeType Magic-Byte Table [DONE]

Status: Completed (commit 2f026c7)

Replaced the chain of if/memcmp blocks with a static MagicEntry lookup table covering 17 format types: RAR (3 variants), 7z, BZ2, XZ, GZ, ZIP, ACE, LHA, EBML (MKV/WebM), OGG, FLAC, MP4, FLV, ASF, TORRENT. Table is checked before FindMimeFromData for speed and reliability.

REFAC_005 — Fix BZ2 Signature Bug [DONE]

Status: Completed (commit 2f026c7)

Replaced the old "BZh19" 5-byte check with a dedicated MatchMimeMagicBZip() function that correctly matches "BZh" followed by any digit 1-9.

REFAC_006 — Reduce MIME Buffer and Reorder Detection [DONE]

Status: Completed (commit 2f026c7)

Magic-byte table now runs before FindMimeFromData. Buffer handling optimized.

REFAC_007 — Clean Up MIME Forward Declaration [DONE]

Status: Completed (commit 2f026c7)

PPgSecurity.cpp now properly uses GetMimeType() at line 231 instead of a bare forward declaration.

REFAC_008 — WebM vs MKV Disambiguation (Optional)

Status: Optional Effort: Low

MKV and WebM share EBML header 1A 45 DF A3. To distinguish, parse the EBML DocType element deeper in the header (webm vs matroska). Low priority — returning video/x-matroska for both is fine for file-info dialog use.

REFAC_009 — First-Start Socket Rework [DONE]

Status: Completed (commit 83ff501)

What was done

  • Removed the startup wizard entirely (PShtWiz1.cpp, 854 lines deleted)
  • Removed wizard menu command and associated UI
  • The m_bFirstStart flag in Preferences is retained solely for detecting first application launch for initialization logic (not a UI wizard)
  • Socket initialization unified into a single non-duplicated startup path
  • Connection presets dialog also removed in follow-up commit dbf9133

REFAC_010 — Windows Property Store Metadata (Exploratory)

Status: Exploratory — not committed to implementation Effort: Unknown

Explore using the Windows Property Store (IPropertyStore) as the first metadata path for non-audio/video file types (images, documents, archives). Keep MediaInfo.dll as optional fallback where it adds coverage beyond the Windows property system.

REFAC_011 — Delete #if 0 Dead Code Blocks [DONE]

Status: Verified done in the current tree (2026-04-13 revalidation)

Removed all 10 #if 0 blocks across: AddSourceDlg.h, DialogMinTrayBtn.cpp, EmuleDlg.cpp, IESecurity.cpp, MiniMule.cpp, MuleListCtrl.cpp, OtherFunctions.cpp, SelfTest.cpp, WebServer.h, kademlia/io/DataIO.cpp.

Current revalidation note: the old commit reference recorded here is not present in the current app repo history, but the code state itself is verified clean.

REFAC_012 — Remove Defunct PeerCache Opcode Handlers

Status: Re-opened after 2026-04-13 revalidation

The current authoritative eMule-main tree still contains PeerCache remnants:

  • Opcodes.h still defines OP_PEERCACHE_QUERY, OP_PEERCACHE_ANSWER, OP_PEERCACHE_ACK
  • ListenSocket.cpp still has active handler cases for those opcodes
  • OtherFunctions.cpp still exposes their opcode-name strings
  • BaseClient.cpp still carries related PeerCache-era baggage/comments

This means the earlier "done" note was stale for the current tree.

REFAC_013 — Remove Source Exchange v1 Branches

Status: Planned Effort: Medium (~200-300 lines across BaseClient.cpp, DownloadClient.cpp)

Source Exchange v2 superseded v1 years ago. All m_bySourceExchange1Ver branches and the uSourceExchange1Ver = 4 constant can be removed once minimum client version is set to v2-capable.

REFAC_014 — Remove deadlake PROXYSUPPORT Comments

Status: Re-opened after 2026-04-13 revalidation

The current authoritative eMule-main tree still contains deadlake PROXYSUPPORT comments in:

  • EMSocket.cpp
  • Preferences.h
  • ServerConnect.h
  • ServerConnect.cpp
  • ListenSocket.cpp

This means the earlier "done" note was stale for the current tree.

REFAC_015 — Remove Windows 95/NT4 Detection [DONE]

Status: Completed (commit 1771c30)

Removed Windows 95 detection code and the fake Windows TCP half-open limit helper (commit 879b081).

REFAC_016 — Remove Legacy INI Key Reads [DONE]

Status: Completed (commit bf41753)

Removed FileBufferSizePref, QueueSizePref, and other deprecated import keys from Preferences.cpp.

REFAC_017 — ASSERT(0) Audit in Networking/Encryption [PARTIAL]

Status: Partially done (commit 2b9837c)

Most "must be a bug" ASSERT(0) paths in EncryptedStreamSocket.cpp were converted to proper error handling. 4 defensive assertions remain at lines 149, 699, 711, 753 — these are in critical failure paths (FailEncryptedStream, buffer state machine edge cases, worst-case RNG failure) where the ASSERT is intentionally retained as a debug diagnostic.

The ArchiveRecovery.cpp:233 ASSERT(0) FIXME has not been addressed.

REFAC_018 — Audit Upload Compression Remnants [DONE]

Status: Completed (commit 683d19e) Effort: Low

Audited the current tree after WIP commit 6c6fd3f and narrowed the task to true upload-removal remnants instead of broad protocol compression removal.

What was done

  • Removed the now-unused CUpDownClient::GetDataCompressionVersion() accessor, which no longer has any callers after the upload compressed-part path was deleted.
  • Confirmed that the upload thread now always emits standard upload packets and no longer retains dead compressed-part generation helpers.
  • Locked the task scope to dead upload-removal remnants only, not unrelated zlib or packet-compression infrastructure.

Intentionally kept

  • OP_PACKEDPROT receive/unpack compatibility on the ED2K TCP path
  • Source-exchange packet compression
  • Server OP_OFFERFILES compression
  • Kad UDP packed-packet send/receive support
  • Current client hello/mule-info compression capability advertisement

Priority Ranking

Remaining work (items not yet [DONE])

Immediate (low risk, high cleanup value): 1. REFAC_002 — Replace CZIPFile with minizip 2. REFAC_012 — Remove defunct PeerCache opcode baggage 3. REFAC_014 — Remove deadlake PROXYSUPPORT attribution comments 4. REFAC_013 — Remove Source Exchange v1 branches

Optional / exploratory: 5. REFAC_008 — WebM/MKV disambiguation 6. REFAC_010 — Windows Property Store metadata 7. REFAC_003 — GZIPFile wrapper (deferred, low value)