[Richard Sharpe <rsharpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2004, Brad Hards wrote:

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> On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 23:14 pm, Richard Sharpe wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > today I was talking to someone at LCA2004 who was interested in removing
> > dissectors, and we discussed doing it dynamically.
> What is the goal?
> We can already disable dissectors. Ethereal isn't really that large (and 
> removing a few dissectors won't make a significant difference). Can you 
> explain the use case?

That term use case seems to have become trendy ... :-)

He uses tethereal with the SQL patch to store info in MySQL and then does 
lots of interesting postprocessing on the data. He claims that they can 
process at about 30Mbps, and, using 0.9.16, experiences something like a 
300% speed improvement if he removes all but the half-dozen protocols they 
are interested in and the protocols required to reach those protocols.

I have asked him to re-test with 0.10.0[a] but it seems that the same 
level of performance improvement might be available even under 0.10.0[a] 
by disabling most of the protocols.

Regards
-----
Richard Sharpe, rsharpe[at]richardsharpe.com, rsharpe[at]samba.org, 
sharpe[at]ethereal.com, http://www.richardsharpe.com