IDL2WRS(1)

NAME
idl2wrs - CORBA IDL to Wireshark Plugin Generator

SYNOPSIS
idl2wrs <filename>

DESCRIPTION
idl2wrs is a program that takes a user specified CORBA IDL file and generates "C" source code for a Wireshark "plugin".

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

idl2wrs is actually a shell script wrapper for two Python programs. These programs are:

•   wireshark_be.py

    Contains the main IDL Visitor Class

•   wireshark_gen.py

    Contains the Source Code Generator Class

idl2wrs 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. idl2wrs can be invoked as follows.

1. To write the C code to stdout.

    idl2wrs  <your_file.idl>

    eg: idl2wrs echo.idl

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

    idl2wrs echo.idl > packet-test.c

ENVIRONMENT
idl2wrs will look for wireshark_be.py and wireshark_gen.py in $PYTHONPATH/site-packages/ and if not found, will try the current directory ./

The -p option passed to omniidl (inside idl2wrs) indicates where wireshark_be.py and wireshark_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
wireshark(1), tshark(1)

NOTES
idl2wrs (including wireshark_be.py and wireshark_gen.py) are part of the Wireshark distribution. The latest version of Wireshark can be found at <https://www.wireshark.org>.

idl2wrs uses omniidl, an IDL parser, and can be found at <http://omniorb.sourceforge.net/>

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
  ------------