Auto pruning of the Devices list

[utiac 7]

Had occasion to look at Settings -> Devices and I see that every version of Emby server I've accessed over the last two+ years is listed (every time I access it). There are hundreds of entries, most of them from a web browser which is how I do most of my maintenance. Can't we auto prune this list, so it doesn't become required maintenance?

Edited June 24, 2024 by utiac
spelling error

[adminExitium 355]

In the meanwhile, this should help:

 

[utiac 7]

Thanks for that - will have a look. Is the dll file the one from 2019-12-31 08:51 25088 bytes? The forum post discussing it seemed to indicate a newer version.

Edited June 24, 2024 by utiac
Question added

[bakes82 167]

Plugins become a PITA to maintain people just stop supporting them.  You basically roll the dice and if it works it works, if not your sol.

[utiac 7]

Agreed. I'm not keen to pop in an unknown/untested file to my system. But the need to prune these entries exists. I might simply remove (I'm running Emby on a debian server) all the entries at /var/lib/emby/data/devices/ and see what happens. I would stop server and back up that folder first. However, that does nothing to change the devices listed in the admin interface. So they must be stored or cached somewhere else. Funny thing is the most recent folder (out of 150) at /var/lib/emby/data/devices/ is from Oct 2022 and the most recent file (out of  747) is from Oct 14 2022. I can't imagine why they need to exist.

[bakes82 167]

Every plugin is untested or unverified. Even the ones on the marketplace thing lol. They don’t verify there isn’t any nefarious code in it.  They don’t even see the source code or check to see if it works.  I don’t know what you’re removing the records are in the database so either you use the plugin and see if it works or you write code to use the api to remove them or just deal with it like they expect you to.  Not sure what you are trying to solve for other than you have a list of records and it seems to bother you. Emby has lots of quirks.

[Happy2Play 9781]

26 minutes ago, bakes82 said:

Every plugin is untested or unverified.

Really, I know that is BS as ever plugin on the forum has been tested by someone.  As it is a community created plugin.  And know v1.0.0.1 works just fine.

[bakes82 167]

3 hours ago, Happy2Play said:

Really, I know that is BS as ever plugin on the forum has been tested by someone.  As it is a community created plugin.  And know v1.0.0.1 works just fine.

And you can verify there is no harmful code in any of the plugins lol.  And when I say tested I mean by the emby staff when it goes on the marketplace thing. It would be very easy to put a plugin that people want and have it delete media or add backdoors etc. I’ve posted plugins myself so you would be false by saying they are “tested” by people, most people have no idea what they are doing and just want functionality and don’t care about any ramifications.  I can have them create admin accounts, remote log the creds and server info and have access to numerous instances and most would be none the wiser.

[Happy2Play 9781]

8 minutes ago, bakes82 said:

And you can verify there is no harmful code in any of the plugins lol.  And when I say tested I mean by the emby staff when it goes on the marketplace thing. It would be very easy to put a plugin that people want and have it delete media or add backdoors etc. I’ve posted plugins myself so you would be false by saying they are “tested” by people, most people have no idea what they are doing and just want functionality and don’t care about any ramifications.  I can have them create admin accounts, remote log the creds and server info and have access to numerous instances and most would be none the wiser.

LOL sounds like something that you would do from the way you post in this community.  But community devs have earned users trust here and most of their code is online to validate.  But to get into the catalog due diligence is done.

[Gilgamesh_48 1240]

4 hours ago, bakes82 said:

Every plugin is untested or unverified. Even the ones on the marketplace thing lol. They don’t verify there isn’t any nefarious code in it.  They don’t even see the source code or check to see if it works.  I don’t know what you’re removing the records are in the database so either you use the plugin and see if it works or you write code to use the api to remove them or just deal with it like they expect you to.  Not sure what you are trying to solve for other than you have a list of records and it seems to bother you. Emby has lots of quirks.

You clearly do not trust Emby and, while i sometimes fight violently (well as violently as possible on a well moderated message board) I do trust that Emby will not knowingly allow malicious code anywhere in their system. There some/most plugins that I find useless and that overwhelm many systems but nothing i have seen or heard makes me think even a little that there is dangerous code in any plugin. 

I firmly believe that paranoia is good in the computer world but that belief does not extend to the point of seeing conspiracies to infect code from what has proved to be a safe system like Emby. 

Sometimes I feel Emby lies to me but they do not do that for any malicious reasons. Sometimes that lie action is simply lies pf omission and other, probably most of the time, they do it to try and make me shut up and go away. It usually works.
I do not think they have any motivation to actually hurt their users but I use only the minimal plugins that I get proper operation using. The fancy ones that really, for me, serve no purpose, like the DLNA one or the fancy ones designed to make the interface "pretty." I don't watch the interface. I watch content.

[bakes82 167]

14 hours ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

seeing conspiracies to infect code from what has proved to be a safe system like Emby

Community plugins are not made by emby, nor do they require any kind of scan/testing/validation to be listed on their plugin store thing.

Im pointing out that happy said all plugins are tested when they aren’t. You can see numerous issues related to plugins. The devs even tried to blame support issues on me for a plugin I didn’t write because it was causing them issues because it was creating multiple database records and I was creating a similar type plugin and noticed the same issues.  Or you can see their support process, do you have any 3rd party plugin disable those first.  You can look at the code of many of the devs and see they are diy learning coders with many things having null exceptions, poorly designed loops and lack of understanding the emby framework.  Emby also exposes a bunch of admin/system level functions.

Take sending a “message” I believe you need to use an admin account.  So the plugin could just create a new admin account called whatever, send those creds to you and most users would be line oh that’s fine I want to use this plugin for the ability.