Valve Server Manager (VSM)

A lightweight, cross-platform terminal user interface (TUI) utility written in Rust that allows players to block and unblock Valve's Steam Datagram Relay (SDR) server regions.

By manipulating the operating system's firewall, VSM forces matchmaking systems in games like Counter-Strike 2 and Deadlock to select the specific global regions you prefer, avoiding high latency or undesirable routing.

---

Features

• Cross-Platform Integration:
  • Linux: Automatically creates and manages a dedicated VSM_BLOCKS chain in iptables to keep your primary rules clean.
  • Windows: Spawns high-performance rules in the Windows Advanced Firewall using netsh.
• Dynamic Latency Checking: Launches a multi-threaded pinger in the background to display live, color-coded round-trip latency to each region's relay nodes.
• Configurable Persistence: Offers a settings overlay to toggle whether firewall blocks persist after exiting the TUI, or automatically clean up.
• Zero-Config Startup: Fetches Valve's latest SDR configuration directly from the Steam API at startup, with an embedded local JSON fallback if offline.
• Clean & Safe: Operates purely at the network firewall level. Does not modify any game files, memory, or system DLLs (VAC safe).
• Robust Test Suite: Over 80% line coverage verified using mock executors and Ratatui's memory-based TestBackend.

---

Controls

Key	Action
Arrow Up / Down or k / j	Navigate through the PoP (Point of Presence) region list
Space / Enter	Toggle firewall block/allow for the selected region
R / r	Reset (Clear all VSM firewall blocks and unblock everything)
S / s	Toggle Settings overlay panel
Q / Esc / Ctrl+C	Exit VSM (cleans up rules if ephemeral mode is active)

---

Getting Started

Installation & Download

There are three ways to get Valve Server Manager:

1. Windows: Download the Windows binary from the latest release (v0.1.1).
2. Linux: Download the Linux binary from the latest release (v0.1.1).
3. Gentoo: If using Gentoo Linux, you can use the razza-overlay Portage overlay to build it from source.

---

Building from Source Manually

If you prefer to compile the application yourself, follow these steps.

Prerequisites

• Rust and Cargo (edition 2021+)
• Administrative privileges on your system (required to edit firewall rules)

Compilation

Clone the repository and compile the release binary:

git clone https://github.com/mrazza/valve-server-manager.git
cd valve-server-manager
cargo build --release

The compiled binary will be located at target/release/valve-server-manager.

Running VSM

To allow VSM to modify firewall rules, it must be run with elevated privileges.

Linux:

sudo ./target/release/valve-server-manager

Windows (Run as Administrator):

.\target\release\valve-server-manager.exe

---

Architecture

The codebase is structured into isolated, testable modules:

• src/main.rs: Entrypoint, privilege validation, and alternate screen bootstrap.
• src/privileges.rs: Cross-platform checks (Windows UAC admin token, Linux effective UID 0).
• src/config.rs: Handles loading and saving configuration states (settings.toml).
• src/sdr.rs: Manages parsing and continental grouping of Steam relay PoPs.
• src/firewall/: Abstrated firewall operations behind a FirewallDriver trait. Communicates via a mockable CommandExecutor.
• src/ping.rs: A parallel worker thread batcher that periodically measures ICMP ping latencies.
• src/tui/: Implements the layout rendering (ui.rs) and state machine event loop (mod.rs).

---

Testing

Running unit tests:

cargo test

Generating test coverage report (requires LLVM tools):

LLVM_PROFILE_FILE="vsm-%p-%m.profraw" RUSTFLAGS="-C instrument-coverage" cargo test
llvm-profdata merge -sparse vsm-*.profraw -o vsm.profdata
llvm-cov report -instr-profile=vsm.profdata target/debug/deps/valve_server_manager-<hash> src/