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Wireshark-dev: [Wireshark-dev] Help with dissecting data spanning multiple packets without know

From: "Jarolin, Robert" <Robert.Jarolin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:42:46 -0400
Title: Help with dissecting data spanning multiple packets without knowing the length up front

I am working on a dissector for dissecting character string oriented TCP messages.  The messages are of variable length with no header specifying the length.  The message is considered finished when a '\n' character is found.  These messages may span multiple packets as well as have multiple messages in 1 packet.

I have only written dissectors that have header info that can be used to return a length value for tcp_dissect_pdus to handle the fragmentation.  Since I cannot determine the length until I find a '\n' character, how can I dissect these message types?

Is there a way to parse a packet, get to the end of the packet, then realize you need to continue the current dissection with the next packet?  If so, how?

Thanks for any help!


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