Ethereal-users: Re: [ethereal-users] Windows NT and update list in real time

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From: Guy Harris <gharris@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 23:36:04 -0700
> I am running ethereal in a Digital UNIX environment and I can check it
> but in a windows environment I don't seem to get it to work. Is this
> something to do with the WinCap stuff?

No, it's something to do with the fact that Win32 lacks "fork()" and
"exec()", and *currently* the way the "Update list of packets in real
time" stuff works is that we fork and execute another process to do the
capture, using "fork()" and "exec()", and we have not yet made a version
of it that works on Win32 systems such as NT and Windows 9x by using,
for example, the Win32 "CreateProcess()" call, or by using threads
instead of processes.

(Cygwin may have "fork()" and "exec()", but I'd prefer not to require
Cygwin.)

Unfortunately, "Update list of packets in real time" won't work in
Ethereal on Win32 systems until we do so.  We'd like to do it, but, as
with most software, the list of things the developers would like to do
is usually larger than the list of things they can do right at the
moment....