Ethereal-dev: Re: [ethereal-dev] 64-bit pcap timestamp problems

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From: Guy Harris <gharris@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 19:39:36 -0700
> This brings up a problem related to the one above: if this is hardwired to
> 32 bits, the file format will lock everyone in to using 32 bit time
> values while everything will (hopefully) be migrating away from them.

There are some other irritating problems with the current "libpcap"
format; I don't know whether the LBL folk are going to change it, but,
some time before 2038, either they should change it to use 64-bit time
stamps everywhere, or we should switch to a new format (either one of
our own, e.g. for "wiretap", or an existing one if it meets all our
needs).

By that time, hopefully the penalty for using 64-bit time stamps will be
low enough that there'd be no reason to use 32-bit time stamps.