$Revision$ $Date$ $Author$ This file is a HOWTO for Wireshark developers. It describes how to start coding a Wireshark protocol dissector and the use some of the important functions and variables. This file is compiled to give in depth information on Wireshark. It is by no means all inclusive and complete. Please feel free to send remarks and patches to the developer mailing list. 0. Prerequisites. Before starting to develop a new dissector, a "running" Wireshark build environment is required - there's no such thing as a standalone "dissector build toolkit". How to setup such an environment is platform dependant, detailed information about these steps can be found in the "Developer's Guide" (available from: http://www.wireshark.org) and in the INSTALL and README files of the sources root dir. 0.1. General README files. You'll find additional information in the following README files: - README.capture - the capture engine internals - README.design - Wireshark software design - incomplete - README.developer - this file - README.display_filter - Display Filter Engine - README.idl2wrs - CORBA IDL converter - README.packaging - how to distribute a software package containing WS - README.regression - regression testing of WS and TS - README.stats_tree - a tree statistics counting specific packets - README.tapping - "tap" a dissector to get protocol specific events - README.xml-output - how to work with the PDML exported output - wiretap/README.developer - how to add additional capture file types to Wiretap 0.2. Dissector related README files. You'll find additional dissector related information in the following README files: - README.binarytrees - fast access to large data collections - README.malloc - how to obtain "memory leak free" memory - README.plugins - how to "pluginize" a dissector - README.request_response_tracking - how to track req./resp. times and such 0.3 Contributors James Coe Gilbert Ramirez Jeff Foster Olivier Abad Laurent Deniel Gerald Combs Guy Harris Ulf Lamping 1. Setting up your protocol dissector code. This section provides skeleton code for a protocol dissector. It also explains the basic functions needed to enter values in the traffic summary columns, add to the protocol tree, and work with registered header fields. 1.1 Code style. 1.1.1 Portability. Wireshark runs on many platforms, and can be compiled with a number of different compilers; here are some rules for writing code that will work on multiple platforms. Don't use C++-style comments (comments beginning with "//" and running to the end of the line); Wireshark's dissectors are written in C, and thus run through C rather than C++ compilers, and not all C compilers support C++-style comments (GCC does, but IBM's C compiler for AIX, for example, doesn't do so by default). Don't initialize variables in their declaration with non-constant values. Not all compilers support this. E.g. don't use guint32 i = somearray[2]; use guint32 i; i = somearray[2]; instead. Don't use zero-length arrays; not all compilers support them. If an array would have no members, just leave it out. Don't declare variables in the middle of executable code; not all C compilers support that. Variables should be declared outside a function, or at the beginning of a function or compound statement. Don't use "inline"; not all compilers support it. If you want to have a function be an inline function if the compiler supports it, use G_INLINE_FUNC, which is declared by . This may not work with functions declared in header files; if it doesn't work, don't declare the function in a header file, even if this requires that you not make it inline on any platform. Don't use "uchar", "u_char", "ushort", "u_short", "uint", "u_int", "ulong", "u_long" or "boolean"; they aren't defined on all platforms. If you want an 8-bit unsigned quantity, use "guint8"; if you want an 8-bit character value with the 8th bit not interpreted as a sign bit, use "guchar"; if you want a 16-bit unsigned quantity, use "guint16"; if you want a 32-bit unsigned quantity, use "guint32"; and if you want an "int-sized" unsigned quantity, use "guint"; if you want a boolean, use "gboolean". Use "%d", "%u", "%x", and "%o" to print those types; don't use "%ld", "%lu", "%lx", or "%lo", as longs are 64 bits long on many platforms, but "guint32" is 32 bits long. Don't use "long" to mean "signed 32-bit integer", and don't use "unsigned long" to mean "unsigned 32-bit integer"; "long"s are 64 bits long on many platforms. Use "gint32" for signed 32-bit integers and use "guint32" for unsigned 32-bit integers. Don't use "long" to mean "signed 64-bit integer" and don't use "unsigned long" to mean "unsigned 64-bit integer"; "long"s are 32 bits long on other many platforms. Don't use "long long" or "unsigned long long", either, as not all platforms support them; use "gint64" or "guint64", which will be defined as the appropriate types for 64-bit signed and unsigned integers. When printing or displaying the values of 64-bit integral data types, don't assume use "%lld", "%llu", "%llx", or "%llo" - not all platforms support "%ll" for printing 64-bit integral data types. Instead, use PRId64, PRIu64, PRIx64, and PRIo64, for example proto_tree_add_text(tree, tvb, offset, 8, "Sequence Number: %" PRIu64, sequence_number); When specifying an integral constant that doesn't fit in 32 bits, don't use "LL" at the end of the constant - not all compilers use "LL" for that. Instead, put the constant in a call to the "G_GINT64_CONSTANT()" macro, e.g. G_GINT64_CONSTANT(11644473600U) rather than 11644473600ULL Don't use a label without a statement following it. For example, something such as if (...) { ... done: } will not work with all compilers - you have to do if (...) { ... done: ; } with some statement, even if it's a null statement, after the label. Don't use "bzero()", "bcopy()", or "bcmp()"; instead, use the ANSI C routines "memset()" (with zero as the second argument, so that it sets all the bytes to zero); "memcpy()" or "memmove()" (note that the first and second arguments to "memcpy()" are in the reverse order to the arguments to "bcopy()"; note also that "bcopy()" is typically guaranteed to work on overlapping memory regions, while "memcpy()" isn't, so if you may be copying from one region to a region that overlaps it, use "memmove()", not "memcpy()" - but "memcpy()" might be faster as a result of not guaranteeing correct operation on overlapping memory regions); and "memcmp()" (note that "memcmp()" returns 0, 1, or -1, doing an ordered comparison, rather than just returning 0 for "equal" and 1 for "not equal", as "bcmp()" does). Not all platforms necessarily have "bzero()"/"bcopy()"/"bcmp()", and those that do might not declare them in the header file on which they're declared on your platform. Don't use "index()" or "rindex()"; instead, use the ANSI C equivalents, "strchr()" and "strrchr()". Not all platforms necessarily have "index()" or "rindex()", and those that do might not declare them in the header file on which they're declared on your platform. Don't fetch data from packets by getting a pointer to data in the packet with "tvb_get_ptr()", casting that pointer to a pointer to a structure, and dereferencing that pointer. That point won't necessarily be aligned on the proper boundary, which can cause crashes on some platforms (even if it doesn't crash on an x86-based PC); furthermore, the data in a packet is not necessarily in the byte order of the machine on which Wireshark is running. Use the tvbuff routines to extract individual items from the packet, or use "proto_tree_add_item()" and let it extract the items for you. Don't use structures that overlay packet data, or into which you copy packet data; the C programming language does not guarantee any particular alignment of fields within a structure, and even the extensions that try to guarantee that are compiler-specific and not necessarily supported by all compilers used to build Wireshark. Using bitfields in those structures are even worse; the order of bitfields is not guaranteed. Don't use "ntohs()", "ntohl()", "htons()", or "htonl()"; the header files required to define or declare them differ between platforms, and you might be able to get away with not including the appropriate header file on your platform but that might not work on other platforms. Instead, use "g_ntohs()", "g_ntohl()", "g_htons()", and "g_htonl()"; those are declared by , and you'll need to include that anyway, as Wireshark header files that all dissectors must include use stuff from . Don't fetch a little-endian value using "tvb_get_ntohs() or "tvb_get_ntohl()" and then using "g_ntohs()", "g_htons()", "g_ntohl()", or "g_htonl()" on the resulting value - the g_ routines in question convert between network byte order (big-endian) and *host* byte order, not *little-endian* byte order; not all machines on which Wireshark runs are little-endian, even though PCs are. Fetch those values using "tvb_get_letohs()" and "tvb_get_letohl()". Don't put a comma after the last element of an enum - some compilers may either warn about it (producing extra noise) or refuse to accept it. Don't include without protecting it with #ifdef HAVE_UNISTD_H ... #endif and, if you're including it to get routines such as "open()", "close()", "read()", and "write()" declared, also include if present: #ifdef HAVE_IO_H #include #endif in order to declare the Windows C library routines "_open()", "_close()", "_read()", and "_write()". Your file must include - which many of the Wireshark header files include, so you might not have to include it explicitly - in order to get "open()", "close()", "read()", "write()", etc. mapped to "_open()", "_close()", "_read()", "_write()", etc.. When opening a file with "fopen()", "freopen()", or "fdopen()", if the file contains ASCII text, use "r", "w", "a", and so on as the open mode - but if it contains binary data, use "rb", "wb", and so on. On Windows, if a file is opened in a text mode, writing a byte with the value of octal 12 (newline) to the file causes two bytes, one with the value octal 15 (carriage return) and one with the value octal 12, to be written to the file, and causes bytes with the value octal 15 to be discarded when reading the file (to translate between C's UNIX-style lines that end with newline and Windows' DEC-style lines that end with carriage return/line feed). In addition, that also means that when opening or creating a binary file, you must use "open()" (with O_CREAT and possibly O_TRUNC if the file is to be created if it doesn't exist), and OR in the O_BINARY flag. That flag is not present on most, if not all, UNIX systems, so you must also do #ifndef O_BINARY #define O_BINARY 0 #endif to properly define it for UNIX (it's not necessary on UNIX). Don't use forward declarations of static arrays without a specified size in a fashion such as this: static const value_string foo_vals[]; ... static const value_string foo_vals[] = { { 0, "Red" }, { 1, "Green" }, { 2, "Blue" }, { 0, NULL } }; as some compilers will reject the first of those statements. Instead, initialize the array at the point at which it's first declared, so that the size is known. Don't put a comma after the last tuple of an initializer of an array. For #define names and enum member names, prefix the names with a tag so as to avoid collisions with other names - this might be more of an issue on Windows, as it appears to #define names such as DELETE and OPTIONAL. Don't use the "numbered argument" feature that many UNIX printf's implement, e.g.: g_snprintf(add_string, 30, " - (%1$d) (0x%1$04x)", value); as not all UNIX printf's implement it, and Windows printf doesn't appear to implement it. Use something like g_snprintf(add_string, 30, " - (%d) (0x%04x)", value, value); instead. Don't use "variadic macros", such as #define DBG(format, args...) fprintf(stderr, format, ## args) as not all C compilers support them. Use macros that take a fixed number of arguments, such as #define DBG0(format) fprintf(stderr, format) #define DBG1(format, arg1) fprintf(stderr, format, arg1) #define DBG2(format, arg1, arg2) fprintf(stderr, format, arg1, arg2) ... or something such as #define DBG(args) printf args snprintf() -> g_snprintf() snprintf() is not available on all platforms, so it's a good idea to use the g_snprintf() function declared by instead. tmpnam() -> mkstemp() tmpnam is insecure and should not be used any more. Wireshark brings its own mkstemp implementation for use on platforms that lack mkstemp. Note: mkstemp does not accept NULL as a parameter. The pointer returned by a call to "tvb_get_ptr()" is not guaranteed to be aligned on any particular byte boundary; this means that you cannot safely cast it to any data type other than a pointer to "char", "unsigned char", "guint8", or other one-byte data types. You cannot, for example, safely cast it to a pointer to a structure, and then access the structure members directly; on some systems, unaligned accesses to integral data types larger than 1 byte, and floating-point data types, cause a trap, which will, at best, result in the OS slowly performing an unaligned access for you, and will, on at least some platforms, cause the program to be terminated. Wireshark supports both platforms with GLib 1.2[.x]/GTK+ 1.2[.x] and GLib 2.x/GTK+ 1.3[.x] and 2.x. If at all possible, either use only mechanisms that are present in GLib 1.2[.x] and GTK+ 1.2[.x], use #if's to conditionally use older or newer mechanisms depending on the platform on which Wireshark is being built, or, if the code in GLib or GTK+ that implements that mechanism will build with GLib 1.2[.x]/GTK+ 1.2[.x], conditionally include that code as part of the Wireshark source and use the included version with GLib 1.2[.x] or GTK+ 1.2[.x]. In particular, if the GLib 2.x or GTK+ 2.x mechanism indicates that a routine is deprecated and shouldn't be used in new code, and that it was renamed in GLib 2.x or GTK+ 2.x and the new name should be used, disregard that and use the old name - it'll still work with GLib 2.x or GTK+ 2.x, but will also work with GLib 1.2[.x] and GTK+ 1.2[.x]. When different code must be used on UN*X and Win32, use a #if or #ifdef that tests _WIN32, not WIN32. Try to write code portably whenever possible, however; note that there are some routines in Wireshark with platform-dependent implementations and platform-independent APIs, such as the routines in epan/filesystem.c, allowing the code that calls it to be written portably without #ifdefs. 1.1.2 String handling Do not use functions such as strcat() or strcpy(). A lot of work has been done to remove the existing calls to these functions and we do not want any new callers of these functions. Instead use g_snprintf() since that function will if used correctly prevent buffer overflows for large strings. When using a buffer to create a string, do not use a buffer stored on the stack. I.e. do not use a buffer declared as char buffer[1024]; instead allocate a buffer dynamically using the emem routines (see README.malloc) such as char *buffer=NULL; ... #define MAX_BUFFER 1024 buffer=ep_alloc(MAX_BUFFER); buffer[0]=0; ... g_snprintf(buffer, MAX_BUFFER, ... This avoids the stack from being corrupted in case there is a bug in your code that accidentally writes beyond the end of the buffer. If you write a routine that will create and return a pointer to a filled in string and if that buffer will not be further processed or appended to after the routine returns (except being added to the proto tree), do not preallocate the buffer to fill in and pass as a parameter instead pass a pointer to a pointer to the function and return a pointer to an emem allocated buffer that will be automatically freed. (see README.malloc) I.e. do not write code such as static void foo_to_str(char *string, ... ){ } ... char buffer[1024]; ... foo_to_str(buffer, ... proto_tree_add_text(... buffer ... instead write the code as static void foo_to_str(char **buffer, ... #define MAX_BUFFER x *buffer=ep_alloc(MAX_BUFFER); } ... char *buffer; ... foo_to_str(&buffer, ... proto_tree_add_text(... *buffer ... Use ep_ allocated buffers. They are very fast and nice. These buffers are all automatically free()d when the dissection of the current packet ends so you don't have to worry about free()ing them explicitly in order to not leak memory. Please read README.malloc. When using g_strsplit() from glib, place an #include at the top of your file. This file will leave in place g_strsplit() when using GTK/GLib v2 and replace it with GLib v2 code when compiling for GTK/GLib 1. This is necessary because the GLib v1 version of g_strsplit is known to be buggy. In either case, you will still use the g_strsplit() function name as usual in your code. 1.1.3 Robustness. Wireshark is not guaranteed to read only network traces that contain correctly- formed packets. Wireshark is commonly used is to track down networking problems, and the problems might be due to a buggy protocol implementation sending out bad packets. Therefore, protocol dissectors not only have to be able to handle correctly-formed packets without, for example, crashing or looping infinitely, they also have to be able to handle *incorrectly*-formed packets without crashing or looping infinitely. Here are some suggestions for making dissectors more robust in the face of incorrectly-formed packets: Do *NOT* use "g_assert()" or "g_assert_not_reached()" in dissectors. *NO* value in a packet's data should be considered "wrong" in the sense that it's a problem with the dissector if found; if it cannot do anything else with a particular value from a packet's data, the dissector should put into the protocol tree an indication that the value is invalid, and should return. If you are allocating a chunk of memory to contain data from a packet, or to contain information derived from data in a packet, and the size of the chunk of memory is derived from a size field in the packet, make sure all the data is present in the packet before allocating the buffer. Doing so means that 1) Wireshark won't leak that chunk of memory if an attempt to fetch data not present in the packet throws an exception and 2) it won't crash trying to allocate an absurdly-large chunk of memory if the size field has a bogus large value. If you're fetching into such a chunk of memory a string from the buffer, and the string has a specified size, you can use "tvb_get_*_string()", which will check whether the entire string is present before allocating a buffer for the string, and will also put a trailing '\0' at the end of the buffer. If you're fetching into such a chunk of memory a 2-byte Unicode string from the buffer, and the string has a specified size, you can use "tvb_get_ephemeral_faked_unicode()", which will check whether the entire string is present before allocating a buffer for the string, and will also put a trailing '\0' at the end of the buffer. The resulting string will be a sequence of single-byte characters; the only Unicode characters that will be handled correctly are those in the ASCII range. (Wireshark's ability to handle non-ASCII strings is limited; it needs to be improved.) If you're fetching into such a chunk of memory a sequence of bytes from the buffer, and the sequence has a specified size, you can use "tvb_memdup()", which will check whether the entire sequence is present before allocating a buffer for it. Otherwise, you can check whether the data is present by using "tvb_ensure_bytes_exist()" or by getting a pointer to the data by using "tvb_get_ptr()", although note that there might be problems with using the pointer from "tvb_get_ptr()" (see the item on this in the Portability section above, and the next item below). Note also that you should only fetch string data into a fixed-length buffer if the code ensures that no more bytes than will fit into the buffer are fetched ("the protocol ensures" isn't good enough, as protocol specifications can't ensure only packets that conform to the specification will be transmitted or that only packets for the protocol in question will be interpreted as packets for that protocol by Wireshark). If there's no maximum length of string data to be fetched, routines such as "tvb_get_*_string()" are safer, as they allocate a buffer large enough to hold the string. (Note that some variants of this call require you to free the string once you're finished with it.) If you have gotten a pointer using "tvb_get_ptr()", you must make sure that you do not refer to any data past the length passed as the last argument to "tvb_get_ptr()"; while the various "tvb_get" routines perform bounds checking and throw an exception if you refer to data not available in the tvbuff, direct references through a pointer gotten from "tvb_get_ptr()" do not do any bounds checking. If you have a loop that dissects a sequence of items, each of which has a length field, with the offset in the tvbuff advanced by the length of the item, then, if the length field is the total length of the item, and thus can be zero, you *MUST* check for a zero-length item and abort the loop if you see one. Otherwise, a zero-length item could cause the dissector to loop infinitely. You should also check that the offset, after having the length added to it, is greater than the offset before the length was added to it, if the length field is greater than 24 bits long, so that, if the length value is *very* large and adding it to the offset causes an overflow, that overflow is detected. If you are fetching a length field from the buffer, corresponding to the length of a portion of the packet, and subtracting from that length a value corresponding to the length of, for example, a header in the packet portion in question, *ALWAYS* check that the value of the length field is greater than or equal to the length you're subtracting from it, and report an error in the packet and stop dissecting the packet if it's less than the length you're subtracting from it. Otherwise, the resulting length value will be negative, which will either cause errors in the dissector or routines called by the dissector, or, if the value is interpreted as an unsigned integer, will cause the value to be interpreted as a very large positive value. Any tvbuff offset that is added to as processing is done on a packet should be stored in a 32-bit variable, such as an "int"; if you store it in an 8-bit or 16-bit variable, you run the risk of the variable overflowing. sprintf() -> g_snprintf() Prevent yourself from using the sprintf() function, as it does not test the length of the given output buffer and might be writing into memory areas not intended for. This function is one of the main causes of security problems like buffer exploits and many other bugs that are very hard to find. It's much better to use the g_snprintf() function declared by instead. You should test your dissector against incorrectly-formed packets. This can be done using the randpkt and editcap utilities that come with the Wireshark distribution. Testing using randpkt can be done by generating output at the same layer as your protocol, and forcing Wireshark/TShark to decode it as your protocol, e.g. if your protocol sits on top of UDP: randpkt -c 50000 -t dns randpkt.pcap tshark -nVr randpkt.pcap -d udp.port==53, Testing using editcap can be done using preexisting capture files and the "-E" flag, which introduces errors in a capture file. E.g.: editcap -E 0.03 infile.pcap outfile.pcap tshark -nVr outfile.pcap The script fuzz-test.sh is available to help automate these tests. 1.1.4 Name convention. Wireshark uses the underscore_convention rather than the InterCapConvention for function names, so new code should probably use underscores rather than intercaps for functions and variable names. This is especially important if you are writing code that will be called from outside your code. We are just trying to keep things consistent for other users. 1.1.5 White space convention. Avoid using tab expansions different from 8 column widths, as not all text editors in use by the developers support this. For a detailed discussion of tabs, spaces, and indentation, see http://www.jwz.org/doc/tabs-vs-spaces.html When creating a new file, you are free to choose an indentation logic. Most of the files in Wireshark tend to use 2-space or 4-space indentation. You are encouraged to write a short comment on the indentation logic at the beginning of this new file, especially if you're using non-mod-8 tabs. The tabs-vs-spaces document above provides examples of Emacs and vi modelines for this purpose. When editing an existing file, try following the existing indentation logic and even if it very tempting, never ever use a restyler/reindenter utility on an existing file. If you run across wildly varying indentation styles within the same file, it might be helpful to send a note to wireshark-dev for guidance. 1.2 Skeleton code. Wireshark requires certain things when setting up a protocol dissector. Below is skeleton code for a dissector that you can copy to a file and fill in. Your dissector should follow the naming convention of packet- followed by the abbreviated name for the protocol. It is recommended that where possible you keep to the IANA abbreviated name for the protocol, if there is one, or a commonly-used abbreviation for the protocol, if any. Usually, you will put your newly created dissector file into the directory epan/dissectors, just like all the other packet-....c files already in there. Also, please add your dissector file to the corresponding makefile, described in section "1.9 Editing Makefile.common to add your dissector" below. Dissectors that use the dissector registration to register with a lower level dissector don't need to define a prototype in the .h file. For other dissectors the main dissector routine should have a prototype in a header file whose name is "packet-", followed by the abbreviated name for the protocol, followed by ".h"; any dissector file that calls your dissector should be changed to include that file. You may not need to include all the headers listed in the skeleton below, and you may need to include additional headers. For example, the code inside #ifdef HAVE_LIBPCRE ... #endif is needed only if you are using a function from libpcre, e.g. the "pcre_compile()" function. The "$Id$" in the comment will be updated by Subversion when the file is checked in. When creating a new file, it is fine to just write "$Id$" as Subversion will automatically fill in the identifier at the time the file will be added to the SVN repository (committed). ------------------------------------Cut here------------------------------------ /* packet-PROTOABBREV.c * Routines for PROTONAME dissection * Copyright 200x, YOUR_NAME * * $Id$ * * Wireshark - Network traffic analyzer * By Gerald Combs * Copyright 1998 Gerald Combs * * Copied from WHATEVER_FILE_YOU_USED (where "WHATEVER_FILE_YOU_USED" * is a dissector file; if you just copied this from README.developer, * don't bother with the "Copied from" - you don't even need to put * in a "Copied from" if you copied an existing dissector, especially * if the bulk of the code in the new dissector is your code) * * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version. * * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the * GNU General Public License for more details. * * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. */ #ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H # include "config.h" #endif #include #include #include #include #include #include /* IF PROTO exposes code to other dissectors, then it must be exported in a header file. If not, a header file is not needed at all. */ #include "packet-PROTOABBREV.h" /* Forward declaration we need below */ void proto_reg_handoff_PROTOABBREV(void); /* Initialize the protocol and registered fields */ static int proto_PROTOABBREV = -1; static int hf_PROTOABBREV_FIELDABBREV = -1; /* Global sample preference ("controls" display of numbers) */ static gboolean gPREF_HEX = FALSE; /* Initialize the subtree pointers */ static gint ett_PROTOABBREV = -1; /* Code to actually dissect the packets */ static int dissect_PROTOABBREV(tvbuff_t *tvb, packet_info *pinfo, proto_tree *tree) { /* Set up structures needed to add the protocol subtree and manage it */ proto_item *ti; proto_tree *PROTOABBREV_tree; /* First, if at all possible, do some heuristics to check if the packet cannot * possibly belong to your protocol. This is especially important for * protocols directly on top of TCP or UDP where port collisions are * common place (e.g., even though your protocol uses a well known port, * someone else may set up, for example, a web server on that port which, * if someone analyzed that web server's traffic in Wireshark, would result * in Wireshark handing an HTTP packet to your dissector). For example: */ /* Get some values from the packet header, probably using tvb_get_*() */ if ( /* these values are not possible in PROTONAME */ ) /* This packet does not appear to belong to PROTONAME. * Return 0 to give another dissector a chance to dissect it. */ return 0; /* Make entries in Protocol column and Info column on summary display */ if (check_col(pinfo->cinfo, COL_PROTOCOL)) col_set_str(pinfo->cinfo, COL_PROTOCOL, "PROTOABBREV"); /* This field shows up as the "Info" column in the display; you should use it, if possible, to summarize what's in the packet, so that a user looking at the list of packets can tell what type of packet it is. See section 1.5 for more information. Before changing the contents of a column you should make sure the column is active by calling "check_col(pinfo->cinfo, COL_*)". If it is not active don't bother setting it. If you are setting the column to a constant string, use "col_set_str()", as it's more efficient than the other "col_set_XXX()" calls. If you're setting it to a string you've constructed, or will be appending to the column later, use "col_add_str()". "col_add_fstr()" can be used instead of "col_add_str()"; it takes "printf()"-like arguments. Don't use "col_add_fstr()" with a format string of "%s" - just use "col_add_str()" or "col_set_str()", as it's more efficient than "col_add_fstr()". If you will be fetching any data from the packet before filling in the Info column, clear that column first, in case the calls to fetch data from the packet throw an exception because they're fetching data past the end of the packet, so that the Info column doesn't have data left over from the previous dissector; do if (check_col(pinfo->cinfo, COL_INFO)) col_clear(pinfo->cinfo, COL_INFO); */ if (check_col(pinfo->cinfo, COL_INFO)) col_set_str(pinfo->cinfo, COL_INFO, "XXX Request"); /* A protocol dissector can be called in 2 different ways: (a) Operational dissection In this mode, Wireshark is only interested in the way protocols interact, protocol conversations are created, packets are reassembled and handed over to higher-level protocol dissectors. In this mode Wireshark does not build a so-called "protocol tree". (b) Detailed dissection In this mode, Wireshark is also interested in all details of a given protocol, so a "protocol tree" is created. Wireshark distinguishes between the 2 modes with the proto_tree pointer: (a) <=> tree == NULL (b) <=> tree != NULL In the interest of speed, if "tree" is NULL, avoid building a protocol tree and adding stuff to it, or even looking at any packet data needed only if you're building the protocol tree, if possible. Note, however, that you must fill in column information, create conversations, reassemble packets, build any other persistent state needed for dissection, and call subdissectors regardless of whether "tree" is NULL or not. This might be inconvenient to do without doing most of the dissection work; the routines for adding items to the protocol tree can be passed a null protocol tree pointer, in which case they'll return a null item pointer, and "proto_item_add_subtree()" returns a null tree pointer if passed a null item pointer, so, if you're careful not to dereference any null tree or item pointers, you can accomplish this by doing all the dissection work. This might not be as efficient as skipping that work if you're not building a protocol tree, but if the code would have a lot of tests whether "tree" is null if you skipped that work, you might still be better off just doing all that work regardless of whether "tree" is null or not. */ if (tree) { /* NOTE: The offset and length values in the call to "proto_tree_add_item()" define what data bytes to highlight in the hex display window when the line in the protocol tree display corresponding to that item is selected. Supplying a length of -1 is the way to highlight all data from the offset to the end of the packet. */ /* create display subtree for the protocol */ ti = proto_tree_add_item(tree, proto_PROTOABBREV, tvb, 0, -1, FALSE); PROTOABBREV_tree = proto_item_add_subtree(ti, ett_PROTOABBREV); /* add an item to the subtree, see section 1.6 for more information */ proto_tree_add_item(PROTOABBREV_tree, hf_PROTOABBREV_FIELDABBREV, tvb, offset, len, FALSE) /* Continue adding tree items to process the packet here */ } /* If this protocol has a sub-dissector call it here, see section 1.8 */ /* Return the amount of data this dissector was able to dissect */ return tvb_length(tvb); } /* Register the protocol with Wireshark */ /* this format is require because a script is used to build the C function that calls all the protocol registration. */ void proto_register_PROTOABBREV(void) { module_t *PROTOABBREV_module; /* Setup list of header fields See Section 1.6.1 for details*/ static hf_register_info hf[] = { { &hf_PROTOABBREV_FIELDABBREV, { "FIELDNAME", "PROTOABBREV.FIELDABBREV", FIELDTYPE, FIELDBASE, FIELDCONVERT, BITMASK, "FIELDDESCR", HFILL } } }; /* Setup protocol subtree array */ static gint *ett[] = { &ett_PROTOABBREV }; /* Register the protocol name and description */ proto_PROTOABBREV = proto_register_protocol("PROTONAME", "PROTOSHORTNAME", "PROTOABBREV"); /* Required function calls to register the header fields and subtrees used */ proto_register_field_array(proto_PROTOABBREV, hf, array_length(hf)); proto_register_subtree_array(ett, array_length(ett)); /* Register preferences module (See Section 2.6 for more on preferences) */ PROTOABBREV_module = prefs_register_protocol(proto_PROTOABBREV, proto_reg_handoff_PROTOABBREV); /* Register a sample preference */ prefs_register_bool_preference(PROTOABBREV_module, "showHex", "Display numbers in Hex", "Enable to display numerical values in hexadecimal.", &gPREF_HEX); } /* If this dissector uses sub-dissector registration add a registration routine. This exact format is required because a script is used to find these routines and create the code that calls these routines. This function is also called by preferences whenever "Apply" is pressed (see prefs_register_protocol above) so it should accommodate being called more than once. */ void proto_reg_handoff_PROTOABBREV(void) { static gboolean inited = FALSE; if (!inited) { dissector_handle_t PROTOABBREV_handle; /* Use new_create_dissector_handle() to indicate that dissect_PROTOABBREV() * returns the number of bytes it dissected (or 0 if it thinks the packet * does not belong to PROTONAME). */ PROTOABBREV_handle = new_create_dissector_handle(dissect_PROTOABBREV, proto_PROTOABBREV); dissector_add("PARENT_SUBFIELD", ID_VALUE, PROTOABBREV_handle); inited = TRUE; } /* If you perform registration functions which are dependant upon prefs the you should de-register everything which was associated with the previous settings and re-register using the new prefs settings here. In general this means you need to keep track of what value the preference had at the time you registered using a local static in this function. ie. static int currentPort = -1; if (currentPort != -1) { dissector_delete("tcp.port", currentPort, PROTOABBREV_handle); } currentPort = gPortPref; dissector_add("tcp.port", currentPort, PROTOABBREV_handle); */ } ------------------------------------Cut here------------------------------------ 1.3 Explanation of needed substitutions in code skeleton. In the above code block the following strings should be substituted with your information. YOUR_NAME Your name, of course. You do want credit, don't you? It's the only payment you will receive.... YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS Keep those cards and letters coming. WHATEVER_FILE_YOU_USED Add this line if you are using another file as a starting point. PROTONAME The name of the protocol; this is displayed in the top-level protocol tree item for that protocol. PROTOSHORTNAME An abbreviated name for the protocol; this is displayed in the "Preferences" dialog box if your dissector has any preferences, in the dialog box of enabled protocols, and in the dialog box for filter fields when constructing a filter expression. PROTOABBREV A name for the protocol for use in filter expressions; it shall contain only lower-case letters, digits, and hyphens. FIELDNAME The displayed name for the header field. FIELDABBREV The abbreviated name for the header field. (NO SPACES) FIELDTYPE FT_NONE, FT_BOOLEAN, FT_UINT8, FT_UINT16, FT_UINT24, FT_UINT32, FT_UINT64, FT_INT8, FT_INT16, FT_INT24, FT_INT32, FT_INT64, FT_FLOAT, FT_DOUBLE, FT_ABSOLUTE_TIME, FT_RELATIVE_TIME, FT_STRING, FT_STRINGZ, FT_UINT_STRING, FT_ETHER, FT_BYTES, FT_IPv4, FT_IPv6, FT_IPXNET, FT_FRAMENUM, FT_PROTOCOL, FT_GUID, FT_OID FIELDBASE BASE_NONE, BASE_DEC, BASE_HEX, BASE_OCT, BASE_DEC_HEX, BASE_HEX_DEC, BASE_RANGE_STRING FIELDCONVERT VALS(x), RVALS(x), TFS(x), NULL BITMASK Usually 0x0 unless using the TFS(x) field conversion. FIELDDESCR A brief description of the field. PARENT_SUBFIELD Lower level protocol field used for lookup, i.e. "tcp.port" ID_VALUE Lower level protocol field value that identifies this protocol For example the TCP or UDP port number If, for example, PROTONAME is "Internet Bogosity Discovery Protocol", PROTOSHORTNAME would be "IBDP", and PROTOABBREV would be "ibdp". Try to conform with IANA names. 1.4 The dissector and the data it receives. 1.4.1 Header file. This is only needed if the dissector doesn't use self-registration to register itself with the lower level dissector, or if the protocol dissector wants/needs to expose code to other subdissectors. The dissector must declared as exactly as follows in the file packet-PROTOABBREV.h: int dissect_PROTOABBREV(tvbuff_t *tvb, packet_info *pinfo, proto_tree *tree); 1.4.2 Extracting data from packets. NOTE: See the file /epan/tvbuff.h for more details. The "tvb" argument to a dissector points to a buffer containing the raw data to be analyzed by the dissector; for example, for a protocol running atop UDP, it contains the UDP payload (but not the UDP header, or any protocol headers above it). A tvbuffer is a opaque data structure, the internal data structures are hidden and the data must be access via the tvbuffer accessors. The accessors are: Single-byte accessor: guint8 tvb_get_guint8(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); Network-to-host-order accessors for 16-bit integers (guint16), 24-bit integers, 32-bit integers (guint32), and 64-bit integers (guint64): guint16 tvb_get_ntohs(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); guint32 tvb_get_ntoh24(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); guint32 tvb_get_ntohl(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); guint64 tvb_get_ntoh64(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); Network-to-host-order accessors for single-precision and double-precision IEEE floating-point numbers: gfloat tvb_get_ntohieee_float(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); gdouble tvb_get_ntohieee_double(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); Little-Endian-to-host-order accessors for 16-bit integers (guint16), 24-bit integers, 32-bit integers (guint32), and 64-bit integers (guint64): guint16 tvb_get_letohs(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); guint32 tvb_get_letoh24(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); guint32 tvb_get_letohl(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); guint64 tvb_get_letoh64(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); Little-Endian-to-host-order accessors for single-precision and double-precision IEEE floating-point numbers: gfloat tvb_get_letohieee_float(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); gdouble tvb_get_letohieee_double(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); Accessors for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses: guint32 tvb_get_ipv4(tvbuff_t*, gint offset); void tvb_get_ipv6(tvbuff_t*, gint offset, struct e_in6_addr *addr); NOTE: IPv4 addresses are not to be converted to host byte order before being passed to "proto_tree_add_ipv4()". You should use "tvb_get_ipv4()" to fetch them, not "tvb_get_ntohl()" *OR* "tvb_get_letohl()" - don't, for example, try to use "tvb_get_ntohl()", find that it gives you the wrong answer on the PC on which you're doing development, and try "tvb_get_letohl()" instead, as "tvb_get_letohl()" will give the wrong answer on big-endian machines. Accessors for GUID: void tvb_get_ntohguid(tvbuff_t *, gint offset, e_guid_t *guid); void tvb_get_letohguid(tvbuff_t *, gint offset, e_guid_t *guid); String accessors: guint8 *tvb_get_string(tvbuff_t*, gint offset, gint length); guint8 *tvb_get_ephemeral_string(tvbuff_t*, gint offset, gint length); Returns a null-terminated buffer containing data from the specified tvbuff, starting at the specified offset, and containing the specified length worth of characters (the length of the buffer will be length+1, as it includes a null character to terminate the string). tvb_get_string() returns a buffer allocated by g_malloc() so you must g_free() it when you are finished with the string. Failure to g_free() this buffer will lead to memory leaks. tvb_get_ephemeral_string() returns a buffer allocated from a special heap with a lifetime until the next packet is dissected. You do not need to free() this buffer, it will happen automatically once the next packet is dissected. guint8 *tvb_get_stringz(tvbuff_t *tvb, gint offset, gint *lengthp); guint8 *tvb_get_ephemeral_stringz(tvbuff_t *tvb, gint offset, gint *lengthp); Returns a null-terminated buffer, allocated with "g_malloc()", containing data from the specified tvbuff, starting with at the specified offset, and containing all characters from the tvbuff up to and including a terminating null character in the tvbuff. "*lengthp" will be set to the length of the string, including the terminating null. tvb_get_stringz() returns a buffer allocated by g_malloc() so you must g_free() it when you are finished with the string. Failure to g_free() this buffer will lead to memory leaks. tvb_get_ephemeral_stringz() returns a buffer allocated from a special heap with a lifetime until the next packet is dissected. You do not need to free() this buffer, it will happen automatically once the next packet is dissected. guint8 *tvb_fake_unicode(tvbuff_t*, gint offset, gint length); guint8 *tvb_get_ephemeral_faked_unicode(tvbuff_t*, gint offset, gint length); Converts a 2-byte unicode string to an ASCII string. Returns a null-terminated buffer containing data from the specified tvbuff, starting at the specified offset, and containing the specified length worth of characters (the length of the buffer will be length+1, as it includes a null character to terminate the string). tvb_fake_unicode() returns a buffer allocated by g_malloc() so you must g_free() it when you are finished with the string. Failure to g_free() this buffer will lead to memory leaks. tvb_get_ephemeral_faked_unicode() returns a buffer allocated from a special heap with a lifetime until the next packet is dissected. You do not need to free() this buffer, it will happen automatically once the next packet is dissected. Copying memory: guint8* tvb_memcpy(tvbuff_t*, guint8* target, gint offset, gint length); Copies into the specified target the specified length's worth of data from the specified tvbuff, starting at the specified offset. guint8* tvb_memdup(tvbuff_t*, gint offset, gint length); guint8* ep_tvb_memdup(tvbuff_t*, gint offset, gint length); Returns a buffer, allocated with "g_malloc()", containing the specified length's worth of data from the specified tvbuff, starting at the specified offset. The ephemeral variant is freed automatically after the packet is dissected. Pointer-retrieval: /* WARNING! This function is possibly expensive, temporarily allocating * another copy of the packet data. Furthermore, it's dangerous because once * this pointer is given to the user, there's no guarantee that the user will * honor the 'length' and not overstep the boundaries of the buffer. */ guint8* tvb_get_ptr(tvbuff_t*, gint offset, gint length); The reason that tvb_get_ptr() might have to allocate a copy of its data only occurs with TVBUFF_COMPOSITES, data that spans multiple tvbuffers. If the user request a pointer to a range of bytes that spans the member tvbuffs that make up the TVBUFF_COMPOSITE, the data will have to be copied to another memory region to assure that all the bytes are contiguous. 1.5 Functions to handle columns in the traffic summary window. The topmost pane of the main window is a list of the packets in the capture, possibly filtered by a display filter. Each line corresponds to a packet, and has one or more columns, as configured by the user. Many of the columns are handled by code outside individual dissectors; most dissectors need only specify the value to put in the "Protocol" and "Info" columns. Columns are specified by COL_ values; the COL_ value for the "Protocol" field, typically giving an abbreviated name for the protocol (but not the all-lower-case abbreviation used elsewhere) is COL_PROTOCOL, and the COL_ value for the "Info" field, giving a summary of the contents of the packet for that protocol, is COL_INFO. A value for a column should only be added if the user specified that it be displayed; to check whether a given column is to be displayed, call 'check_col' with the COL_ value for that field as an argument - it will return TRUE if the column is to be displayed and FALSE if it is not to be displayed. The value for a column can be specified with one of several functions, all of which take the 'fd' argument to the dissector as their first argument, and the COL_ value for the column as their second argument. 1.5.1 The col_set_str function. 'col_set_str' takes a string as its third argument, and sets the value for the column to that value. It assumes that the pointer passed to it points to a string constant or a static "const" array, not to a variable, as it doesn't copy the string, it merely saves the pointer value; the argument can itself be a variable, as long as it always points to a string constant or a static "const" array. It is more efficient than 'col_add_str' or 'col_add_fstr'; however, if the dissector will be using 'col_append_str' or 'col_append_fstr" to append more information to the column, the string will have to be copied anyway, so it's best to use 'col_add_str' rather than 'col_set_str' in that case. For example, to set the "Protocol" column to "PROTOABBREV": if (check_col(pinfo->cinfo, COL_PROTOCOL)) col_set_str(pinfo->cinfo, COL_PROTOCOL, "PROTOABBREV"); 1.5.2 The col_add_str function. 'col_add_str' takes a string as its third argument, and sets the value for the column to that value. It takes the same arguments as 'col_set_str', but copies the string, so that if the string is, for example, an automatic variable that won't remain in scope when the dissector returns, it's safe to use. 1.5.3 The col_add_fstr function. 'col_add_fstr' takes a 'printf'-style format string as its third argument, and 'printf'-style arguments corresponding to '%' format items in that string as its subsequent arguments. For example, to set the "Info" field to " request, bytes", where "reqtype" is a string containing the type of the request in the packet and "n" is an unsigned integer containing the number of bytes in the request: if (check_col(pinfo->cinfo, COL_INFO)) col_add_fstr(pinfo->cinfo, COL_INFO, "%s request, %u bytes", reqtype, n); Don't use 'col_add_fstr' with a format argument of just "%s" - 'col_add_str', or possibly even 'col_set_str' if the string that matches the "%s" is a static constant string, will do the same job more efficiently. 1.5.4 The col_clear function. If the Info column will be filled with information from the packet, that means that some data will be fetched from the packet before the Info column is filled in. If the packet is so small that the data in question cannot be fetched, the routines to fetch the data will throw an exception (see the comment at the beginning about tvbuffers improving the handling of short packets - the tvbuffers keep track of how much data is in the packet, and throw an exception on an attempt to fetch data past the end of the packet, so that the dissector won't process bogus data), causing the Info column not to be filled in. This means that the Info column will have data for the previous protocol, which would be confusing if, for example, the Protocol column had data for this protocol. Therefore, before a dissector fetches any data whatsoever from the packet (unless it's a heuristic dissector fetching data to determine whether the packet is one that it should dissect, in which case it should check, before fetching the data, whether there's any data to fetch; if there isn't, it should return FALSE), it should set the Protocol column and the Info column. If the Protocol column will ultimately be set to, for example, a value containing a protocol version number, with the version number being a field in the packet, the dissector should, before fetching the version number field or any other field from the packet, set it to a value without a version number, using 'col_set_str', and should later set it to a value with the version number after it's fetched the version number. If the Info column will ultimately be set to a value containing information from the packet, the dissector should, before fetching any fields from the packet, clear the column using 'col_clear' (which is more efficient than clearing it by calling 'col_set_str' or 'col_add_str' with a null string), and should later set it to the real string after it's fetched the data to use when doing that. 1.5.5 The col_append_str function. Sometimes the value of a column, especially the "Info" column, can't be conveniently constructed at a single point in the dissection process; for example, it might contain small bits of information from many of the fields in the packet. 'col_append_str' takes, as arguments, the same arguments as 'col_add_str', but the string is appended to the end of the current value for the column, rather than replacing the value for that column. (Note that no blank separates the appended string from the string to which it is appended; if you want a blank there, you must add it yourself as part of the string being appended.) 1.5.6 The col_append_fstr function. 'col_append_fstr' is to 'col_add_fstr' as 'col_append_str' is to 'col_add_str' - it takes, as arguments, the same arguments as 'col_add_fstr', but the formatted string is appended to the end of the current value for the column, rather than replacing the value for that column. 1.5.7 The col_append_sep_str and col_append_sep_fstr functions. In specific situations the developer knows that a column's value will be created in a stepwise manner, where the appended values are listed. Both 'col_append_sep_str' and 'col_append_sep_fstr' functions will add an item separator between two consecutive items, and will not add the separator at the beginning of the column. The remainder of the work both functions do is identical to what 'col_append_str' and 'col_append_fstr' do. 1.5.8 The col_set_fence and col_prepend_fence_fstr functions. Sometimes a dissector may be called multiple times for different PDUs in the same frame (for example in the case of SCTP chunk bundling: several upper layer data packets may be contained in one SCTP packet). If the upper layer dissector calls 'col_set_str()' or 'col_clear()' on the Info column when it begins dissecting each of those PDUs then when the frame is fully dissected the Info column would contain only the string from the last PDU in the frame. The 'col_set_fence' function erects a "fence" in the column that prevents subsequent 'col_...' calls from clearing the data currently in that column. For example, the SCTP dissector calls 'col_set_fence' on the Info column after it has called any subdissectors for that chunk so that subdissectors of any subsequent chunks may only append to the Info column. 'col_prepend_fence_fstr' prepends data before a fence (moving it if necessary). It will create a fence at the end of the prended data if the fence does not already exist. 1.6 Constructing the protocol tree. The middle pane of the main window, and the topmost pane of a packet popup window, are constructed from the "protocol tree" for a packet. The protocol tree, or proto_tree, is a GNode, the N-way tree structure available within GLIB. Of course the protocol dissectors don't care what a proto_tree really is; they just pass the proto_tree pointer as an argument to the routines which allow them to add items and new branches to the tree. When a packet is selected in the packet-list pane, or a packet popup window is created, a new logical protocol tree (proto_tree) is created. The pointer to the proto_tree (in this case, 'protocol tree'), is passed to the top-level protocol dissector, and then to all subsequent protocol dissectors for that packet, and then the GUI tree is drawn via proto_tree_draw(). The logical proto_tree needs to know detailed information about the protocols and fields about which information will be collected from the dissection routines. By strictly defining (or "typing") the data that can be attached to a proto tree, searching and filtering becomes possible. This means that the for every protocol and field (which I also call "header fields", since they are fields in the protocol headers) which might be attached to a tree, some information is needed. Every dissector routine will need to register its protocols and fields with the central protocol routines (in proto.c). At first I thought I might keep all the protocol and field information about all the dissectors in one file, but decentralization seemed like a better idea. That one file would have gotten very large; one small change would have required a re-compilation of the entire file. Also, by allowing registration of protocols and fields at run-time, loadable modules of protocol dissectors (perhaps even user-supplied) is feasible. To do this, each protocol should have a register routine, which will be called when Wireshark starts. The code to call the register routines is generated automatically; to arrange that a protocol's register routine be called at startup: the file containing a dissector's "register" routine must be added to "DISSECTOR_SRC" in "epan/dissectors/Makefile.common"; the "register" routine must have a name of the form "proto_register_XXX"; the "register" routine must take no argument, and return no value; the "register" routine's name must appear in the source file either at the beginning of the line, or preceded only by "void " at the beginning of the line (that would typically be the definition) - other white space shouldn't cause a problem, e.g.: void proto_register_XXX(void) { ... } and void proto_register_XXX( void ) { ... } and so on should work. For every protocol or field that a dissector wants to register, a variable of type int needs to be used to keep track of the protocol. The IDs are needed for establishing parent/child relationships between protocols and fields, as well as associating data with a particular field so that it can be stored in the logical tree and displayed in the GUI protocol tree. Some dissectors will need to create branches within their tree to help organize header fields. These branches should be registered as header fields. Only true protocols should be registered as protocols. This is so that a display filter user interface knows how to distinguish protocols from fields. A protocol is registered with the name of the protocol and its abbreviation. Here is how the frame "protocol" is registered. int proto_frame; proto_frame = proto_register_protocol ( /* name */ "Frame", /* short name */ "Frame", /* abbrev */ "frame" ); A header field is also registered with its name and abbreviation, but information about the its data type is needed. It helps to look at the header_field_info struct to see what information is expected: struct header_field_info { char *name; char *abbrev; enum ftenum type; int display; void *strings; guint bitmask; char *blurb; int id; /* calculated */ int parent; int bitshift; /* calculated */ }; name ---- A string representing the name of the field. This is the name that will appear in the graphical protocol tree. abbrev ------ A string with an abbreviation of the field. We concatenate the abbreviation of the parent protocol with an abbreviation for the field, using a period as a separator. For example, the "src" field in an IP packet would have "ip.src" as an abbreviation. It is acceptable to have multiple levels of periods if, for example, you have fields in your protocol that are then subdivided into subfields. For example, TRMAC has multiple error fields, so the abbreviations follow this pattern: "trmac.errors.iso", "trmac.errors.noniso", etc. The abbreviation is the identifier used in a display filter. type ---- The type of value this field holds. The current field types are: FT_NONE No field type. Used for fields that aren't given a value, and that can only be tested for presence or absence; a field that represents a data structure, with a subtree below it containing fields for the members of the structure, or that represents an array with a subtree below it containing fields for the members of the array, might be an FT_NONE field. FT_PROTOCOL Used for protocols which will be placing themselves as top-level items in the "Packet Details" pane of the UI. FT_BOOLEAN 0 means "false", any other value means "true". FT_FRAMENUM A frame number; if this is used, the "Go To Corresponding Frame" menu item can work on that field. FT_UINT8 An 8-bit unsigned integer. FT_UINT16 A 16-bit unsigned integer. FT_UINT24 A 24-bit unsigned integer. FT_UINT32 A 32-bit unsigned integer. FT_UINT64 A 64-bit unsigned integer. FT_INT8 An 8-bit signed integer. FT_INT16 A 16-bit signed integer. FT_INT24 A 24-bit signed integer. FT_INT32 A 32-bit signed integer. FT_INT64 A 64-bit signed integer. FT_FLOAT A single-precision floating point number. FT_DOUBLE A double-precision floating point number. FT_ABSOLUTE_TIME Seconds (4 bytes) and nanoseconds (4 bytes) of time displayed as month name, month day, year, hours, minutes, and seconds with 9 digits after the decimal point. FT_RELATIVE_TIME Seconds (4 bytes) and nanoseconds (4 bytes) of time displayed as seconds and 9 digits after the decimal point. FT_STRING A string of characters, not necessarily NUL-terminated, but possibly NUL-padded. This, and the other string-of-characters types, are to be used for text strings, not raw binary data. FT_STRINGZ A NUL-terminated string of characters. FT_UINT_STRING A counted string of characters, consisting of a count (represented as an integral value) followed immediately by the specified number of characters. FT_ETHER A six octet string displayed in Ethernet-address format. FT_BYTES A string of bytes with arbitrary values; used for raw binary data. FT_IPv4 A version 4 IP address (4 bytes) displayed in dotted-quad IP address format (4 decimal numbers separated by dots). FT_IPv6 A version 6 IP address (16 bytes) displayed in standard IPv6 address format. FT_IPXNET An IPX address displayed in hex as a 6-byte network number followed by a 6-byte station address. FT_GUID A Globally Unique Identifier FT_OID An ASN.1 Object Identifier Some of these field types are still not handled in the display filter routines, but the most common ones are. The FT_UINT* variables all represent unsigned integers, and the FT_INT* variables all represent signed integers; the number on the end represent how many bits are used to represent the number. display ------- The display field has a couple of overloaded uses. This is unfortunate, but since we're C as an application programming language, this sometimes makes for cleaner programs. Right now I still think that overloading this variable was okay. For integer fields (FT_UINT* and FT_INT*), this variable represents the base in which you would like the value displayed. The acceptable bases are: BASE_DEC, BASE_HEX, BASE_OCT, BASE_DEC_HEX, BASE_HEX_DEC BASE_DEC, BASE_HEX, and BASE_OCT are decimal, hexadecimal, and octal, respectively. BASE_DEC_HEX and BASE_HEX_DEC display value in two bases (the 1st representation followed by the 2nd in parenthesis) For FT_BOOLEAN fields that are also bitfields, 'display' is used to tell the proto_tree how wide the parent bitfield is. With integers this is not needed since the type of integer itself (FT_UINT8, FT_UINT16, FT_UINT24, FT_UINT32, etc.) tells the proto_tree how wide the parent bitfield is. Additionally, BASE_NONE is used for 'display' as a NULL-value. That is, for non-integers and non-bitfield FT_BOOLEANs, you'll want to use BASE_NONE in the 'display' field. You may not use BASE_NONE for integers. It is possible that in the future we will record the endianness of integers. If so, it is likely that we'll use a bitmask on the display field so that integers would be represented as BEND|BASE_DEC or LEND|BASE_HEX. But that has not happened yet. strings ------- Some integer fields, of type FT_UINT*, need labels to represent the true value of a field. You could think of those fields as having an enumerated data type, rather than an integral data type. A 'value_string' structure is a way to map values to strings. typedef struct _value_string { guint32 value; gchar *strptr; } value_string; For fields of that type, you would declare an array of "value_string"s: static const value_string valstringname[] = { { INTVAL1, "Descriptive String 1" }, { INTVAL2, "Descriptive String 2" }, { 0, NULL } }; (the last entry in the array must have a NULL 'strptr' value, to indicate the end of the array). The 'strings' field would be set to 'VALS(valstringname)'. If the field has a numeric rather than an enumerated type, the 'strings' field would be set to NULL. If the field has a numeric type that might logically fit in ranges of values one can use a range_string struct. Thus a 'range_string' structure is a way to map ranges to strings. typedef struct _range_string { guint32 value_min; guint32 value_max; const gchar *strptr; } range_string; For fields of that type, you would declare an array of "range_string"s: static const range_string rvalstringname[] = { { INTVAL_MIN1, INTVALMAX1, "Descriptive String 1" }, { INTVAL_MIN2, INTVALMAX2, "Descriptive String 2" }, { 0, 0, NULL } }; If INTVAL_MIN equals INTVAL_MAX for a given entry the range_string behavior collapses to the one of value_string. For FT_(U)INT* fields that need a 'range_string' struct, the 'strings' field would be set to 'RVALS(rvalstringname)'. Furthermore, 'display' field must be ORed with 'BASE_RANGE_STRING' (e.g. BASE_DEC|BASE_RANGE_STRING). FT_BOOLEANS have a default map of 0 = "False", 1 (or anything else) = "True". Sometimes it is useful to change the labels for boolean values (e.g., to "Yes"/"No", "Fast"/"Slow", etc.). For these mappings, a struct called true_false_string is used. typedef struct true_false_string { char *true_string; char *false_string; } true_false_string; For Boolean fields for which "False" and "True" aren't the desired labels, you would declare a "true_false_string"s: static const true_false_string boolstringname = { "String for True", "String for False" }; Its two fields are pointers to the string representing truth, and the string representing falsehood. For FT_BOOLEAN fields that need a 'true_false_string' struct, the 'strings' field would be set to 'TFS(&boolstringname)'. If the Boolean field is to be displayed as "False" or "True", the 'strings' field would be set to NULL. Wireshark predefines a whole range of ready made "true_false_string"s in tfs.h, included via packet.h. bitmask ------- If the field is a bitfield, then the bitmask is the mask which will leave only the bits needed to make the field when ANDed with a value. The proto_tree routines will calculate 'bitshift' automatically from 'bitmask', by finding the rightmost set bit in the bitmask. If the field is not a bitfield, then bitmask should be set to 0. blurb ----- This is a string giving a proper description of the field. It should be at least one grammatically complete sentence. It is meant to provide a more detailed description of the field than the name alone provides. This information will be used in the man page, and in a future GUI display-filter creation tool. We might also add tooltips to the labels in the GUI protocol tree, in which case the blurb would be used as the tooltip text. 1.6.1 Field Registration. Protocol registration is handled by creating an instance of the header_field_info struct (or an array of such structs), and calling the registration function along with the registration ID of the protocol that is the parent of the fields. Here is a complete example: static int proto_eg = -1; static int hf_field_a = -1; static int hf_field_b = -1; static hf_register_info hf[] = { { &hf_field_a, { "Field A", "proto.field_a", FT_UINT8, BASE_HEX, NULL, 0xf0, "Field A represents Apples", HFILL }}, { &hf_field_b, { "Field B", "proto.field_b", FT_UINT16, BASE_DEC, VALS(vs), 0x0, "Field B represents Bananas", HFILL }} }; proto_eg = proto_register_protocol("Example Protocol", "PROTO", "proto"); proto_register_field_array(proto_eg, hf, array_length(hf)); Be sure that your array of hf_register_info structs is declared 'static', since the proto_register_field_array() function does not create a copy of the information in the array... it uses that static copy of the information that the compiler created inside your array. Here's the layout of the hf_register_info struct: typedef struct hf_register_info { int *p_id; /* pointer to parent variable */ header_field_info hfinfo; } hf_register_info; Also be sure to use the handy array_length() macro found in packet.h to have the compiler compute the array length for you at compile time. If you don't have any fields to register, do *NOT* create a zero-length "hf" array; not all compilers used to compile Wireshark support them. Just omit the "hf" array, and the "proto_register_field_array()" call, entirely. It is OK to have header fields with a different format be registered with the same abbreviation. For instance, the following is valid: static hf_register_info hf[] = { { &hf_field_8bit, /* 8-bit version of proto.field */ { "Field (8 bit)", "proto.field", FT_UINT8, BASE_DEC, NULL, 0x00, "Field represents FOO", HFILL }}, { &hf_field_32bit, /* 32-bit version of proto.field */ { "Field (32 bit)", "proto.field", FT_UINT32, BASE_DEC, NULL, 0x00, "Field represents FOO", HFILL }} }; This way a filter expression can match a header field, irrespective of the representation of it in the specific protocol context. This is interesting for protocols with variable-width header fields. The HFILL macro at the end of the struct will set reasonable default values for internally used fields. 1.6.2 Adding Items and Values to the Protocol Tree. A protocol item is added to an existing protocol tree with one of a handful of proto_XXX_DO_YYY() functions. Remember that it only makes sense to add items to a protocol tree if its proto_tree pointer is not null. Should you add an item to a NULL tree, then the proto_XXX_DO_YYY() function will immediately return. The cost of this function call can be avoided by checking for the tree pointer. Subtrees can be made with the proto_item_add_subtree() function: item = proto_tree_add_item(....); new_tree = proto_item_add_subtree(item, tree_type); This will add a subtree under the item in question; a subtree can be created under an item made by any of the "proto_tree_add_XXX" functions, so that the tree can be given an arbitrary depth. Subtree types are integers, assigned by "proto_register_subtree_array()". To register subtree types, pass an array of pointers to "gint" variables to hold the subtree type values to "proto_register_subtree_array()": static gint ett_eg = -1; static gint ett_field_a = -1; static gint *ett[] = { &ett_eg, &ett_field_a }; proto_register_subtree_array(ett, array_length(ett)); in your "register" routine, just as you register the protocol and the fields for that protocol. There are several functions that the programmer can use to add either protocol or field labels to the proto_tree: proto_item* proto_tree_add_item(tree, id, tvb, start, length, little_endian); proto_item* proto_tree_add_item_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, little_endian); proto_item* proto_tree_add_none_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, format, ...); proto_item* proto_tree_add_protocol_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_bytes(tree, id, tvb, start, length, start_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_bytes_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, start_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_bytes_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, start_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_bytes_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, start_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_time(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_time_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_time_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_time_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipxnet(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipxnet_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipxnet_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipxnet_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipv4(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipv4_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipv4_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipv4_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipv6(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipv6_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipv6_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ipv6_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ether(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ether_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ether_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_ether_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_string(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_string_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_string_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_string_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_boolean(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_boolean_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_boolean_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_boolean_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_float(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_float_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_float_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_float_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_double(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_double_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_double_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_double_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_uint(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_uint_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_uint_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_uint_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_uint64(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_uint64_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_uint64_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_int(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_int_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_int_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_int_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_int64(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value); proto_item * proto_tree_add_int64_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_int64_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value, format, ...); proto_item* proto_tree_add_text(tree, tvb, start, length, format, ...); proto_item* proto_tree_add_text_valist(tree, tvb, start, length, format, ap); proto_item * proto_tree_add_guid(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_guid_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_guid_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_guid_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_oid(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_oid_hidden(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr); proto_item * proto_tree_add_oid_format(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_oid_format_value(tree, id, tvb, start, length, value_ptr, format, ...); proto_item * proto_tree_add_bitmask(tree, tvb, start, header, ett, **fields, little_endian); The 'tree' argument is the tree to which the item is to be added. The 'tvb' argument is the tvbuff from which the item's value is being extracted; the 'start' argument is the offset from the beginning of that tvbuff of the item being added, and the 'length' argument is the length, in bytes, of the item. The length of some items cannot be determined until the item has been dissected; to add such an item, add it with a length of -1, and, when the dissection is complete, set the length with 'proto_item_set_len()': void proto_item_set_len(ti, length); The "ti" argument is the value returned by the call that added the item to the tree, and the "length" argument is the length of the item. proto_tree_add_item() --------------------- proto_tree_add_item is used when you wish to do no special formatting. The item added to the GUI tree will contain the name (as passed in the proto_register_*() function) and a value. The value will be fetched from the tvbuff by proto_tree_add_item(), based on the type of the field and, for integral and Boolean fields, the byte order of the value; the byte order is specified by the 'little_endian' argument, which is TRUE if the value is little-endian and FALSE if it is big-endian. Now that definitions of fields have detailed information about bitfield fields, you can use proto_tree_add_item() with no extra processing to add bitfield values to your tree. Here's an example. Take the Format Identifier (FID) field in the Transmission Header (TH) portion of the SNA protocol. The FID is the high nibble of the first byte of the TH. The FID would be registered like this: name = "Format Identifier" abbrev = "sna.th.fid" type = FT_UINT8 display = BASE_HEX strings = sna_th_fid_vals bitmask = 0xf0 The bitmask contains the value which would leave only the FID if bitwise-ANDed against the parent field, the first byte of the TH. The code to add the FID to the tree would be; proto_tree_add_item(bf_tree, hf_sna_th_fid, tvb, offset, 1, TRUE); The definition of the field already has the information about bitmasking and bitshifting, so it does the work of masking and shifting for us! This also means that you no longer have to create value_string structs with the values bitshifted. The value_string for FID looks like this, even though the FID value is actually contained in the high nibble. (You'd expect the values to be 0x0, 0x10, 0x20, etc.) /* Format Identifier */ static const value_string sna_th_fid_vals[] = { { 0x0, "SNA device <--> Non-SNA Device" }, { 0x1, "Subarea Node <--> Subarea Node" }, { 0x2, "Subarea Node <--> PU2" }, { 0x3, "Subarea Node or SNA host <--> Subarea Node" }, { 0x4, "?" }, { 0x5, "?" }, { 0xf, "Adjaced Subarea Nodes" }, { 0, NULL } }; The final implication of this is that display filters work the way you'd naturally expect them to. You'd type "sna.th.fid == 0xf" to find Adjacent Subarea Nodes. The user does not have to shift the value of the FID to the high nibble of the byte ("sna.th.fid == 0xf0") as was necessary in the past. proto_tree_add_item_hidden() ---------------------------- proto_tree_add_item_hidden is used to add fields and values to a tree, but not show them on a GUI tree. The caller may want a value to be included in a tree so that the packet can be filtered on this field, but the representation of that field in the tree is not appropriate. An example is the token-ring routing information field (RIF). The best way to show the RIF in a GUI is by a sequence of ring and bridge numbers. Rings are 3-digit hex numbers, and bridges are single hex digits: RIF: 001-A-013-9-C0F-B-555 In the case of RIF, the programmer should use a field with no value and use proto_tree_add_none_format() to build the above representation. The programmer can then add the ring and bridge values, one-by-one, with proto_tree_add_item_hidden() so that the user can then filter on or search for a particular ring or bridge. Here's a skeleton of how the programmer might code this. char *rif; rif = create_rif_string(...); proto_tree_add_none_format(tree, hf_tr_rif_label, ..., "RIF: %s", rif); for(i = 0; i < num_rings; i++) { proto_tree_add_item_hidden(tree, hf_tr_rif_ring, ..., FALSE); } for(i = 0; i < num_rings - 1; i++) { proto_tree_add_item_hidden(tree, hf_tr_rif_bridge, ..., FALSE); } The logical tree has these items: hf_tr_rif_label, text="RIF: 001-A-013-9-C0F-B-555", value = NONE hf_tr_rif_ring, hidden, value=0x001 hf_tr_rif_bridge, hidden, value=0xA hf_tr_rif_ring, hidden, value=0x013 hf_tr_rif_bridge, hidden, value=0x9 hf_tr_rif_ring, hidden, value=0xC0F hf_tr_rif_bridge, hidden, value=0xB hf_tr_rif_ring, hidden, value=0x555 GUI or print code will not display the hidden fields, but a display filter or "packet grep" routine will still see the values. The possible filter is then possible: tr.rif_ring eq 0x013 proto_tree_add_protocol_format() ---------------------------- proto_tree_add_protocol_format is used to add the top-level item for the protocol when the dissector routines wants complete control over how the field and value will be represented on the GUI tree. The ID value for the protocol is passed in as the "id" argument; the rest of the arguments are a "printf"-style format and any arguments for that format. The caller must include the name of the protocol in the format; it is not added automatically as in proto_tree_add_item(). proto_tree_add_none_format() ---------------------------- proto_tree_add_none_format is used to add an item of type FT_NONE. The caller must include the name of the field in the format; it is not added automatically as in proto_tree_add_item(). proto_tree_add_bytes() proto_tree_add_time() proto_tree_add_ipxnet() proto_tree_add_ipv4() proto_tree_add_ipv6() proto_tree_add_ether() proto_tree_add_string() proto_tree_add_boolean() proto_tree_add_float() proto_tree_add_double() proto_tree_add_uint() proto_tree_add_uint64() proto_tree_add_int() proto_tree_add_int64() proto_tree_add_guid() proto_tree_add_oid() ---------------------------- These routines are used to add items to the protocol tree if either: the value of the item to be added isn't just extracted from the packet data, but is computed from data in the packet; the value was fetched into a variable. The 'value' argument has the value to be added to the tree. NOTE: in all cases where the 'value' argument is a pointer, a copy is made of the object pointed to; if you have dynamically allocated a buffer for the object, that buffer will not be freed when the protocol tree is freed - you must free the buffer yourself when you don't need it any more. For proto_tree_add_bytes(), the 'value_ptr' argument is a pointer to a sequence of bytes. For proto_tree_add_time(), the 'value_ptr' argument is a pointer to an "nstime_t", which is a structure containing the time to be added; it has 'secs' and 'nsecs' members, giving the integral part and the fractional part of a time in units of seconds, with 'nsecs' being the number of nanoseconds. For absolute times, "secs" is a UNIX-style seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT value. For proto_tree_add_ipxnet(), the 'value' argument is a 32-bit IPX network address. For proto_tree_add_ipv4(), the 'value' argument is a 32-bit IPv4 address, in network byte order. For proto_tree_add_ipv6(), the 'value_ptr' argument is a pointer to a 128-bit IPv6 address. For proto_tree_add_ether(), the 'value_ptr' argument is a pointer to a 48-bit MAC address. For proto_tree_add_string(), the 'value_ptr' argument is a pointer to a text string. For proto_tree_add_boolean(), the 'value' argument is a 32-bit integer; zero means "false", and non-zero means "true". For proto_tree_add_float(), the 'value' argument is a 'float' in the host's floating-point format. For proto_tree_add_double(), the 'value' argument is a 'double' in the host's floating-point format. For proto_tree_add_uint(), the 'value' argument is a 32-bit unsigned integer value, in host byte order. (This routine cannot be used to add 64-bit integers.) For proto_tree_add_uint64(), the 'value' argument is a 64-bit unsigned integer value, in host byte order. For proto_tree_add_int(), the 'value' argument is a 32-bit signed integer value, in host byte order. (This routine cannot be used to add 64-bit integers.) For proto_tree_add_int64(), the 'value' argument is a 64-bit signed integer value, in host byte order. For proto_tree_add_guid(), the 'value_ptr' argument is a pointer to an e_guid_t structure. For proto_tree_add_oid(), the 'value_ptr' argument is a pointer to an ASN.1 Object Identifier. proto_tree_add_bytes_hidden() proto_tree_add_time_hidden() proto_tree_add_ipxnet_hidden() proto_tree_add_ipv4_hidden() proto_tree_add_ipv6_hidden() proto_tree_add_ether_hidden() proto_tree_add_string_hidden() proto_tree_add_boolean_hidden() proto_tree_add_float_hidden() proto_tree_add_double_hidden() proto_tree_add_uint_hidden() proto_tree_add_int_hidden() proto_tree_add_guid_hidden() proto_tree_add_oid_hidden() ---------------------------- These routines add fields and values to a tree, but don't show them in the GUI tree. They are used for the same reason that proto_tree_add_item() is used. proto_tree_add_bytes_format() proto_tree_add_time_format() proto_tree_add_ipxnet_format() proto_tree_add_ipv4_format() proto_tree_add_ipv6_format() proto_tree_add_ether_format() proto_tree_add_string_format() proto_tree_add_boolean_format() proto_tree_add_float_format() proto_tree_add_double_format() proto_tree_add_uint_format() proto_tree_add_uint64_format() proto_tree_add_int_format() proto_tree_add_int64_format() proto_tree_add_guid_format() proto_tree_add_oid_format() ---------------------------- These routines are used to add items to the protocol tree when the dissector routines wants complete control over how the field and value will be represented on the GUI tree. The argument giving the value is the same as the corresponding proto_tree_add_XXX() function; the rest of the arguments are a "printf"-style format and any arguments for that format. The caller must include the name of the field in the format; it is not added automatically as in the proto_tree_add_XXX() functions. proto_tree_add_bytes_format_value() proto_tree_add_time_format_value() proto_tree_add_ipxnet_format_value() proto_tree_add_ipv4_format_value() proto_tree_add_ipv6_format_value() proto_tree_add_ether_format_value() proto_tree_add_string_format_value() proto_tree_add_boolean_format_value() proto_tree_add_float_format_value() proto_tree_add_double_format_value() proto_tree_add_uint_format_value() proto_tree_add_uint64_format_value() proto_tree_add_int_format_value() proto_tree_add_int64_format_value() proto_tree_add_guid_format_value() proto_tree_add_oid_format_value() ---------------------------- These routines are used to add items to the protocol tree when the dissector routines wants complete control over how the value will be represented on the GUI tree. The argument giving the value is the same as the corresponding proto_tree_add_XXX() function; the rest of the arguments are a "printf"-style format and any arguments for that format. With these routines, unlike the proto_tree_add_XXX_format() routines, the name of the field is added automatically as in the proto_tree_add_XXX() functions; only the value is added with the format. proto_tree_add_text() --------------------- proto_tree_add_text() is used to add a label to the GUI tree. It will contain no value, so it is not searchable in the display filter process. This function was needed in the transition from the old-style proto_tree to this new-style proto_tree so that Wireshark would still decode all protocols w/o being able to filter on all protocols and fields. Otherwise we would have had to cripple Wireshark's functionality while we converted all the old-style proto_tree calls to the new-style proto_tree calls. This can also be used for items with subtrees, which may not have values themselves - the items in the subtree are the ones with values. For a subtree, the label on the subtree might reflect some of the items in the subtree. This means the label can't be set until at least some of the items in the subtree have been dissected. To do this, use 'proto_item_set_text()' or 'proto_item_append_text()': void proto_item_set_text(proto_item *ti, ...); void proto_item_append_text(proto_item *ti, ...); 'proto_item_set_text()' takes as an argument the value returned by 'proto_tree_add_text()', a 'printf'-style format string, and a set of arguments corresponding to '%' format items in that string, and replaces the text for the item created by 'proto_tree_add_text()' with the result of applying the arguments to the format string. 'proto_item_append_text()' is similar, but it appends to the text for the item the result of applying the arguments to the format string. For example, early in the dissection, one might do: ti = proto_tree_add_text(tree, tvb, offset, length,