trx-rs/docs/Improvement-Areas.md

Improvement Areas

A comprehensive audit of the trx-rs codebase covering code quality, architecture, security, testing, and performance. Each item includes the affected location and a suggested fix.

Last updated: 2026-03-29

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Resolved Items

Click to expand resolved items from previous audits

Plugin signing and cross-platform validation — DROPPED

Plugin system has been removed from the codebase. No longer applicable.

Session store mutex poisoning (auth.rs) — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-client/trx-frontend/trx-frontend-http/src/auth.rs

All 6 .write().unwrap() / .lock().unwrap() calls replaced with .unwrap_or_else(|e| { warn!(...); e.into_inner() }) pattern. Lock poisoning now logs a warning and recovers the inner data instead of crashing.

No rate limiting on TCP listener — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-server/src/listener.rs

Added ConnectionTracker with per-IP connection limiting (default: 10 concurrent connections per IP). Connections exceeding the limit are rejected with a log warning. Slots are released when clients disconnect.

RigState is a 33-field flat struct — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-core/src/rig/state.rs

Decoder fields grouped into DecoderConfig (8 bools) and DecoderResetSeqs (8 u64 counters). Both use #[serde(flatten)] for backward-compatible JSON wire format. Updated across all consumers.

No spawn_blocking timeout — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-server/src/listener.rs

Satellite pass computation wrapped in tokio::time::timeout(30s, ...) with graceful fallback to empty results on timeout or panic.

Command handler boilerplate — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-core/src/rig/controller/handlers.rs

Created rig_command! declarative macro. 7 unit commands use the macro; 4 commands with custom fields/validation remain as explicit impls.

No command execution timeouts at CommandExecutor level — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-server/src/rig_task.rs

tokio::time::timeout(command_exec_timeout, process_command(...)) wraps all command execution. Default timeout: 10s, configurable via RigTaskConfig.

No forward compatibility in protocol — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-protocol/src/types.rs, src/trx-protocol/src/codec.rs

Added optional protocol_version: Option<u32> to ClientEnvelope and ClientResponse. parse_envelope() distinguishes malformed JSON from unrecognised cmd values.

unsafe string construction in spectrum encoding — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-client/trx-frontend/trx-frontend-http/src/api.rs

Replaced unsafe { String::from_utf8_unchecked(out) } with safe String::from_utf8(out).expect(...).

#[allow(dead_code)] cleanup — RESOLVED

Reduced from 6 to 4 annotations, all in trx-backend-soapysdr where fields serve as lifetime anchors (device, iq_tx) or document reserved capacity (fixed_slot_count, process_pair).

VDES decoder incomplete FEC — RESOLVED

Turbo FEC decoder, CRC-16-CCITT validation, and M.2092-1 link-layer frame parsing implemented.

Plugin system lacks versioning — DROPPED

Plugin system removed from the codebase.

Configurator serial detection stubbed — RESOLVED

Implemented using tokio_serial::available_ports() with USB, Bluetooth, PCI, and Unknown port type descriptions.

Inconsistent frequency/rig naming — DOCUMENTED AS INTENTIONAL

Field names reflect distinct semantic contexts: freq_hz (dial), center_hz (SDR capture center), cw_center_hz (CW tone); rig_id (config key), id (runtime UUID); model (hardware string), rig_model (config parameter).

Decoder task duplication in audio.rs — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-server/src/audio.rs

APRS and HF APRS decoders merged into a single parameterised run_aprs_decoder_inner() function. FT8 and FT4 decoders merged into run_ftx_decoder_inner(). All decoder tasks now include tracing::info_span! around block_in_place() calls for opt-in latency measurement.

Missing tests for critical modules — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-server/src/listener.rs, src/trx-client/trx-frontend/trx-frontend-http/

Added multi-rig state isolation and command routing tests in listener.rs. Added background decode evaluate_bookmark pure-function tests.

Missing integration tests for multi-rig scenarios — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-server/src/listener.rs

Added integration tests covering simultaneous state management across two rigs with a dummy backend, verifying state isolation and command routing.

Decode log silent failures — RESOLVED

Location: src/decoders/trx-decode-log/src/lib.rs

flush() errors are now logged via warn!. On file rotation failure, the old writer is kept rather than silently dropping writes; a degradation warning is emitted.

api.rs file size and organization — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-client/trx-frontend/trx-frontend-http/src/api/

Split 2,831-LOC monolith into 7 logically grouped modules: mod.rs (shared types and route configuration), decoder.rs, rig.rs, vchan.rs, sse.rs, bookmarks.rs, assets.rs.

Background decode state complexity — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-client/trx-frontend/trx-frontend-http/src/background_decode.rs

Extracted the 8-guard decision cascade into a pure evaluate_bookmark() function returning ChannelAction enum (Active or Skip { reason }). Added unit tests for all decision paths.

Actix-web pinned to exact version — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-client/trx-frontend/trx-frontend-http/Cargo.toml

Relaxed from actix-web = "=4.4.1" to actix-web = "4.4" to allow patch-level security updates.

Magic numbers in VDES plausibility scoring — RESOLVED

Location: src/decoders/trx-vdes/src/lib.rs

Inline magic numbers replaced with documented named constants: PLAUSIBILITY_UNSYNCED_THRESHOLD (−35) and PLAUSIBILITY_LOW_CONFIDENCE_THRESHOLD (15).

FT-817 VFO inference fragile with same frequency — DOCUMENTED

Location: src/trx-server/trx-backend/trx-backend-ft817/src/lib.rs

When both VFOs share the same frequency, inference defaults to VFO A. Resolved after VFO toggle primes both sides. Well-documented in code comments; remains a known limitation.

Excessive string cloning in remote client — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-client/src/remote_client.rs

Hot-path spectrum polling loop now caches the token to avoid per-poll cloning. State update path restructured to send to the main watch channel last (taking ownership) and avoid one redundant RigState::clone().

Missing doc comments on public decoder structs — RESOLVED

Location: src/decoders/trx-ais/src/lib.rs, src/decoders/trx-vdes/src/lib.rs, src/decoders/trx-rds/src/lib.rs

Added comprehensive doc comments to AisDecoder, VdesDecoder, and RdsDecoder describing valid sample rates, usage examples, and reset semantics.

Turbo decoder precondition not asserted — RESOLVED

Location: src/decoders/trx-vdes/src/turbo.rs

Added debug_assert_eq! on interleaver and deinterleaver lengths in turbo_decode_soft().

No tracing spans for decoder performance — RESOLVED

Location: src/trx-server/src/audio.rs

Added tracing::info_span! around block_in_place() calls in all 10 decoder tasks (APRS, HF APRS, AIS A/B, VDES, CW, FT8, FT4, FT2, WSPR, LRPT) for opt-in per-decoder latency measurement.

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All previous improvement items have been resolved. No outstanding issues.