Note: This archive is from the project's previous web site, ethereal.com. This list is no longer active.
>In addition, the current version of Microsoft Network Monitor has, >under the Window menu for capture files, a "Label" item, to let you set >the window title. Something such as that might be useful in Ethereal. >Also, as the problem is probably more severe when capturing or when you >have a temporary capture file rather than a named capture file, a field >in the Capture dialog box to let you set the title might be useful. A -L like Microsoft Network Monitor has for a label would work great, and having the ability of that label to also pass to the capture window would be excellent. -----Original Message----- From: Guy Harris [mailto:guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Oct 8, 2003, at 9:07 AM, Dolbow, Bill wrote: > Hey guys, We are using Ethereal on Redhat as a distributed sniffer at > my > company. We are really enjoying it, including the best feature of all > which is multiple instances of ethereal running, BUT, we would like to > have > a -title type of option. We get lost with multiple X-windows open > sniffing > different segments or with different captures. > > > Can we get a command line option like -title on the radar screen. Ethereal uses "getopt()", so options must have single-letter names, meaning "-title" wouldn't work. "-T" is already taken, unless we decide that setting the tree view pane height from a command-line option isn't useful. We could use the GNU "getopt_long()", provide "--title", and carry our own copy for platforms that don't have it, although note that there's more than one implementation of it, which differ in some behaviors: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi? query=getopt_long&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+5.1- current&format=html (This message: http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf/2000-12/msg00032.html asserts that FreeBSD has a "gnugetopt" library for it, but the FreeBSD 5.0 man page says it's in libc; perhaps it was in libgnugetopt in some older BSDs.) > It should > put the text in the title bar of both the main window and the capture > window > when a capture is running. Maybe we can shorten "The Ethereal Network > Analyzer" to just "Ethereal - (title passed via command line)". "(title passed via command line) - Ethereal" would probably be better. Most desktop environments and window managers truncate window titles at the right if they truncate (e.g., in icons/taskbar items), so the application name is probably best put at the end (at least for applications with icons), although that might cause problems for blind users (if the screen-reading software can't get the name of the application for a window in other ways). That's why, when a named capture file is open, we make the window title "(filename) - Ethereal". BTW, that raises another question - if the user specifies, for example ethereal --title "This morning's SYN flood attack" syn_flood.pcap should the "--title" override the file name, so that the title would be This morning's SYN flood attack - Ethereal rather than syn_flood.pcap - Ethereal ? In addition, the current version of Microsoft Network Monitor has, under the Window menu for capture files, a "Label" item, to let you set the window title. Something such as that might be useful in Ethereal. Also, as the problem is probably more severe when capturing or when you have a temporary capture file rather than a named capture file, a field in the Capture dialog box to let you set the title might be useful.
