rust-bitcoin / rust-bitcoin/rust-miniscript
Better error messages on satisfiers
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 426
- Forks
- 200
- Avg merge
- 7d 17h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 8
Description
I've been learning rust-miniscript, and when attempting to try out timelocks, I kept hitting a CouldNotSatisfy when finalizing my psbt. The reason turned out to be totally of my own doing - I had inadvertantly used a Sequence::MAX instead of a Sequence::ZERO when constructing my spend transaction. I had effectively disabled locktime usage, because I had done this:
let txin = TxIn {
previous_output,
..Default::default()
};
instead of this:
let txin = TxIn {
previous_output,
sequence: Sequence::ZERO,
..Default::default()
};
I was so preoccupied trying to figure out how signing worked, how to use the plan module etc that I didn't notice this.
In order to figure out the problem, I ran my own local forks of bdk_wallet, rust-miniscript, and bitcoin crates, instrumenting them with printlns until I figure out what the (dumb, self-inflicted) problem was.
It would be supersonic if satisfier errors gave a more specific reason for failure - I wonder if it would be possible for instance to turn CouldNotSatisfy into something like CouldNotSatisfy("here is the reason")? Or perhaps something more typed like (in the case I just dealt with) CouldNotSatisfy(LockTimeDisabled)?
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start by tracing the satisfier errors around CouldNotSatisfy, especially when finalizing a PSBT and using the plan module. Reproduce the timelock case with Sequence::MAX versus Sequence::ZERO, then determine how failure reasons should be represented. Done means callers receive a more specific, actionable explanation for satisfier failures.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- blockchain, cryptography
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100