Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Wireshark PIDL generated dissectors

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2013 15:38:34 -0700
On Oct 7, 2013, at 3:05 PM, ronnie sahlberg <ronniesahlberg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> The tool.
> I think that wireshark has been used a de-facto fork for PIDL the tool
> since many many years. But a fork that is occasionally synced back
> with upstream.
> That is the only way we can make sure that we will always be able to
> even compile the IDL in wireshark to a working dissector.

If you mean "the tool as a whole", not just "the back end", then

	1) there needs to be a spec for PIDL to which both PIDL processors would conform, and it should be sufficiently complete that any of Samba's PIDL files can be processed by a (non-buggy) conforming processor ("non-buggy" meaning that making it actually work is the responsibility of the maintainers of the processor);

	2) the maintainers of the spec, i.e. the Samba people, should inform us when the spec changes;

	3) the maintainers of the Wireshark PIDL processor, i.e. the Wireshark team, are responsible for changing that processor to follow the spec.