Add a new environment variable to cause abort()s if we add too many items

[metze/wireshark/wip.git] / doc / tshark.pod

diff --git a/doc/tshark.pod b/doc/tshark.pod
index 44d488a4ae3da0aa28ee46fabfeeedc72670e36a..3e7b0d15cd04d8412c742a91bf3c179eb18e3b19 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/tshark.pod
+++ b/doc/tshark.pod
@@ -1642,6 +1642,18 @@ your environment is configured correctly, generate a core dump file.
 This can be useful to developers attempting to troubleshoot a problem
 with a protocol dissector.
 
+=item WIRESHARK_ABORT_ON_TOO_MANY_ITEMS
+
+If this environment variable is set, B<TShark> will call abort(3)
+if a dissector tries to add too many items to a tree (generally this
+is an indication of the dissector not breaking out of a loop soon enough).
+abort(3) will cause the program to exit abnormally; if you are running
+B<TShark> in a debugger, it should halt in the debugger and allow
+inspection of the process, and, if you are not running it in a debugger,
+it will, on some OSes, assuming your environment is configured correctly,
+generate a core dump file.  This can be useful to developers attempting to
+troubleshoot a problem with a protocol dissector.
+
 =item WIRESHARK_EP_VERIFY_POINTERS
 
 This environment variable, if present, causes certain uses of pointers to be