Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Re-use of header fields

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2006 12:06:44 -0700

Benjamin M Stocks wrote:

I have a question on the mechanics of the header fields in Wireshark. I am developing a dissector for a protocol where a specific data format may repeat from 1 -> N times within the same payload. Can I reuse the same header field identifier, registered with proto_register_field_array, for each of the individual data blocks

within the same payload?

Yes. There is nothing whatsoever that requires that only one instance of a particular registered field appear in a given protocol tree, and there are plenty of dissectors that put multiple instances of a field in a protocol tree if the packet has more than one of them.