Ethereal-users: Re: [Ethereal-users] Ethereal version 0.9.1 - foreign file format conversion

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From: Guy Harris <gharris@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 01:09:01 -0800
On Wed, Feb 27, 2002 at 01:00:25AM -0800, sachindeo.v.chavan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Thank you for the response. I used the below command.
> 
> c:> editcap C:\SSSimple.tla mylibcp.libcap
> 
> I'm getting error telling:
> 
> "editcap: Can't open SSSimple.tla file : The file is 
> 	    not the Capture file in the known format".

Yes, it's not a known file format.

That's why I told you that the way to convert the file format is to make
your format a known format; as I said in my previous response:

	Well, one way of doing that would be to make the "editcap" utility,
	`which comes with Ethereal, convert your file format.

	However, the way you do that is to make Ethereal support your file
	format, as "editcap" and Ethereal use the same library to read files;
	the library is in the "wiretap" subdirectory of the Ethereal source.

> Let me explain about my file "SSSimple.tla". This is
> a file which is captured by a Tektronix Logic Analyzer.
> This file format has many other information about the GUI
> display on the Logic Analyzer. Apart from this it has
> packet information acquired from a Ethernet port. So its 
> not a capture file as expected by Editcap.

The *only* reason that it's not a capture file type supported by Editcap
is that there's no code in the Wiretap library to read that.  The fact
that it has information about the GUI display is irrelevant - if it has
packet information from an Ethernet port, then support for it could be
added to Editcap.

> Actually .tla file is our proprietary file format.
> 
> How can I convert such file into libcap or whatever Ethereal
> understands?.

You convert it by adding code to the Wiretap library, in the Ethereal
source, and then rebuilding Editcap with that.  Then you have a version
of Editcap that *can* read Tektronix Logic Analyzer files, and can thus
write them out as libpcap files.

However, once you've done that, you can just read those files *directly*
with Ethereal, so the only reason to convert it would be to allow other
programs to read it.