Ethereal-dev: RE: [Ethereal-dev] PDML output - creator attribute

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From: Biot Olivier <Olivier.Biot@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 23:23:06 +0100
| -----Original Message-----
| From: Gilbert Ramirez
| 
| On Wed, 2003-12-31 at 06:14, Biot Olivier wrote:
| > Hi all,
| > 
| > Although we generate PDML output with Ethereal, and we 
| write the created
| > attribute of the PDML tag, we do not "freeze" a PDML 
| Ethereal spec. However,
| > Ethereal develops over time while we set the "release" at 
| discrete points in
| > time, typically some hours before releasing a new official 
| version. As a
| > result, we cannot rely upon the PDML creator attribute to 
| unambiguously map
| > the output to the *real* creator.
| > 
| > I propose to have a dedicated make target for building a 
| real release, and
| > that we can modify the "creator" attribute (along with 
| other version info in
| > util.c read from config.h), so that:
| > 
| > a) Real "official" releases have a version like it is today.
| > b) Intermittent builds have a text string appended to the 
| base version,
| >    containing e.g., a build timestamp.
| > 
| > Are there other ideas?
| > 
| > Regards,
| 
| Another possibility...
| 
| Instead of using the Ethereal version number in the creator attribute,
| we could assign version numbers to the PDML created by Tethereal. For
| example, this first version of PDML would be labeled:
| 
| 	<pdml version="0" creator="ethereal/0">
| 
| The "ethereal/0" value would stay the same, across Ethereal revisions,
| until the format of the generated PDML changed. Then it would 
| have this
| label:
| 
| 	<pdml version="0" creator="ethereal/1">
| 
| And when Tethereal and Analyzer finally agree on a PDML specification,
| the label would be:
| 
| 	<pdml version="1" creator="ethereal">

However I don't think Ethereal will ever have a final output, as I see many
developers enhancing all dissectors (thanks to all of them!). For this
reason I think it makes sense to add the Ethereal version to the PDML
output. However we cannot distinguish between a PDML file generated with the
official Ethereal build and one generated by an intermittent buid...

Regards,

Olivier