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<== Date ==> <== Thread ==>

Subject: Re: CA protocol dissector
From: Andrew Johnson <[email protected]>
To: Ron Rechenmacher <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:09:47 -0600
Hi Ron,

Ron Rechenmacher wrote:

I see that in Aug, 2006, there was talk of a CA protocol dissector for ethereal (now wireshark)
But, no announcement of availability to the community since

Looking at that particular conversation it was about getting CosyLab to create a dissector, and my guess is that there were too few sites willing to write large enough checks to pay for it. As with any Open Source community, we can only add major features to EPICS in exchange for either money or manpower.


I believe a protocol dissector should be a requirement for using any control system/control system protocol. (just to let people know where I'm coming from.)

From a general perspective I would agree with you (I would certainly have appreciated having one on odd occasions in the past), but evidently nobody in the EPICS community has needed a protocol analyzer enough to actually expend the effort and create one before now.


For Channel Access I attribute this to the fact that until recently we only had one implementation of the CA client library that was used on all platforms, a single developer was responsible for all code touching the protocol, and that the protocol itself was not documented.

I did start a dissector in Fe/Mar of 2006. I think I actually got pretty far. See:
http://fnapcf.fnal.gov/~ron/p/ethereal/ethereal-0.10.14.sf6/plugins/ca/

Thanks for the link, I've added it to the EPICS Extensions page. If you decide to put up a web page with build/installation/usage instructions and/or a tar.gz file please send me an update. Strictly speaking you need to add a copy of the base/LICENSE file to the package since you are re-distributing header files from Base.


Was your message sent because you are currently experiencing problems with CA for which you need to watch the wire traffic?

- Andrew
--
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is
possible, he is almost certainly right.  When he states that something
is impossible, he is very probably wrong.  -- Arthur C. Clarke

Replies:
Re: CA protocol dissector Ron Rechenmacher
References:
CA protocol dissector Ron Rechenmacher

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