# NAME

idl2eth - CORBA IDL to Ethereal Plugin Generator

# SYNOPSYS

idl2eth filename

# DESCRIPTION

idl2eth is a program that takes a user specified CORBA IDL file and generates ``C'' source code for an Ethereal ``plugin''.

This resulting file can be compiled as an Ethereal plugin, and used to monitor GIOP/IIOP traffic that is using this IDL.

idl2eth is actually a shell script wrapper for two Python programs.

These programs are:

ethereal_be.py - Contains the main IDL Visitor Class

ethereal_gen.py - Contains the Source Code Generator Class

idl2eth supports heuristic dissection of GIOP/IIOP traffic, and some experimental code for explicit dissection, based on Object Key <-> Repository Id mapping. However, code for heuristic based plugins is generated by default, and users should consider this the preferred method unless you have some namespace collisions.

# OPTIONS

Currently there are no options. idl2eth can be invoked as follows.

1. To write the C code to stdout.

        idl2eth  <your_file.idl>

        eg: idl2eth echo.idl

2. To write to a file, just redirect the output.

        idl2eth echo.idl > packet-test.c

# ENVIRONMENT

idl2eth will look for ethereal_be.py and ethereal_gen.py in $PYTHONPATH/site-packages/ and if not found, will try the current directory ./

The -p option passed to omniidl (inside idl2eth) indicates where ethereal_be.py and ethereal_gen.py will be searched. This may need tweaking if you place these files somewhere else.

If it complains about being unable to find some modules (eg tempfile.py), you may want to check if PYTHONPATH is set correctly.

eg: PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/python1.5/

# SEE ALSO

ethereal(1)

# NOTES

idl2eth (including ethereal_be.py and ethereal_gen.py) are part of the Ethereal distribution. The latest version of Ethereal can be found at http://www.ethereal.com.

idl2eth uses omniidl, and IDL parser, and can be found at http://www.uk.research.att.com/omniORB/omniORB.html

# TODO

Some of the more important things to do are:

- Improve Explicit dissection code.
- Improve command line options.
- Improve decode algorithm when we have operation name collision.

# AUTHORS

      Original Author
      -------- ------
      Frank Singleton             <frank.singleton[AT]ericsson.com>

      Contributors
      ------------