Ethereal-dev: [Ethereal-dev] Addition to the faq

Note: This archive is from the project's previous web site, ethereal.com. This list is no longer active.

From: Joerg Mayer <jmayer@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 13:21:11 +0200
Hello,

I've written a few lines to add to the faq regarding development of
dissectors/plugins. Please review and add (or let me know how to do
it myself).

  Ciao
        Jörg
--
Joerg Mayer                                          <jmayer@xxxxxxxxx>
I found out that "pro" means "instead of" (as in proconsul). Now I know
what proactive means.
6. Development

6.1 I want to write a dissector, what will I need to do?

Get the sources either as a .tar.gz file or via CVS. Unpack them and
change to the doc/ directory inside the source tree. Read the file
README.developer and look into the other files just long enough to
see which topics are covered there so you may go back and read them
later in case questions come up. Then take a look at an existing
dissector (they are in the files named packet-XXX.c in the Ethereal
top level directory). If you run into problems or need further
information, you can ask it on the Ethereal developers mailing list
which is <ethereal-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxx>.

6.2 I want to write a plugin, what will I need to do?

A plugin is a dissector that can be loaded at run time while normal
dissectors are linked into Etheral at compile time. So, as long as
your dissector isn't huge or proprietary, there is no need to write
a plugin. In order to write one, you write a normal dissector (see
question 6.1) and take an additional look at the file README.plugins
which covers the additional steps required to turn a dissector into
a plugin.