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by mh8h 3808 days ago
Michael Feathers' book, Working Effectively with Legacy Code, is highly recommended. In that book he explains that you can choose between two approaches: Change and pray, or Cover and modify. Then he provides dozens of different strategies to "cover" the existing legacy codes before you make the changes.
1 comments

+1 on the Feathers book recommendation.

The good news is that many, many, many people have been here before you. While you may have a lot of work ahead, you can do it safely and in an orderly and safe fashion. (And with something as butt-ugly as that sounds, that's the only way I'd do it)