Huge thanks to our Platinum Members Endace and LiveAction,
and our Silver Member Veeam, for supporting the Wireshark Foundation and project.

Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] MIB parsing unnecessary

From: Thomas Anders <thomas.anders@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:36:51 +0200
LEGO wrote:
> I been thinking about the fact that Wireshark does not really need a
> MIB parser. It just needs to know OIDs, their name and their type.
> [...]
> That way we could get rid of the NET-SNMP dependency, and *clean* a
> dissector that really needs it. I guess that more than 1/3rd (2/3rds
> if we take encryption out) of the handwritten code in
> packet-snmp-template.c can easily go. And trust me, no one will ever
> miss it, especially the maintainers.

Is there any preview of the libsmi-based dissection available? I'm
curious/concerned how it will handle e.g.

- explicit-length and implicit-length index strings
- display hints

I'd be extremely unhappy to lose any of these features, but I can't see
how oid/name/type-restricted flat files could offer them.

Additionally, I've already got my MIB collection configured in/for
net-snmp and current Wireshark can happily re-use it automatically (e.g.
by setting MIBS to "ALL"). The libsmi approach OTOH would require
additional configuration work for me every time I change my MIB collection.


+Thomas

PS. Sorry for breaking the thread by replying to digest due to vacation.

--
Thomas Anders (thomas.anders at blue-cable.de)