Has anyone given any thought to how ethereal might store names for IEEE 802
hardware addresses? I would like to use a mnemonic for my NIC's hardware
address.
We could:
1. Use /etc/ethers (a system-wide text file)
2. Use a system-wide dbm database.
3. Use a per-user text file.
4. Use a per-user dbm database.
5. Use a client/server database.
BTW, hardware addresses are not useful just in the layer 2 link
encapsulation. They are also useful inside the ARP, IPX, and BOOTP modules.
I've thought about it a bit. I think a combination system-wide and per-user
approach is best. System-wide might be a text file, for ease of maintenace.
And the personal hwaddr database could be a text-file which is always
synchronized to a dbm file.
And these name functions should be in a library separable from ethereal so
that they can be used in the library which we hope to replace libpcap with,
eventually.
Opinions?
--gilbert
--
Gilbert Ramirez Voice: +1 210 358 4032
Technical Services Fax: +1 210 358 1122
University Health System San Antonio, Texas, USA
