On Tue, 2 May 2006, Mckendrick, Monica K wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Help...I am very new to Ethereal. I am trying to learn more about it
> and make a few changes to it and I have no idea how to begin.
It may be a good idea to get a bit more acquainted with its
capabilities first.
> I have Ethereal up and running on a Linux machine. (Note: I also don't
> know much about Linux either)
It may be a good idea to get a bit more acquainted with its
capabilities first. (Dejavu....)
> I am focusing on the PDU packets on a DIS network. I would like to
> change the source code to display more information about those packets,
> if possible. For example, for an entity state PDU, the ethereal system
> will send back information such as: Entity = 76; Force ID = 0;etc. I
> would like the output to tell me what the numbers mean. (i.e. Entity =
> 76 (whatever 76 equates to); Force ID = 0 (whatever 0 equates to); etc.
I would think that these values mean different things for every session
you or someone else captures. This makes it a bit more tricky to get it
done.
> Is that possible to do?
I think so. Assuming that my previous statement is correct an external
file would be required giving the mapping between the ID's and their
meaning.
> Also, if this is possible to do, do I have to open the source code and
> make changes on that Linux machine? How would I import those changes
> into the Ethereal application?
Ehh, that is three questions.
1. Do you have to open source it? That would be nice, thank you, but is
only _required_ if you _distribute_ the changed application.
2. You can develop Ethereal on various UNIX platforms (Linux, HP-UX,
Solaris, OS X, etc.) and on Win32. They take a different approach (see
the developer manual on the website) and in the end you have to build the
application on the platform you want to run it.
3. You start off by getting the source tree (or tarball) from the source
repository and then make modifications to it.
> Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated.
Read, and work through, the developer manual as can be found on the
website, then you get an idea what there is to do to get started.
Thanx,
Jaap