Wireshark-dev: [Wireshark-dev] Dynamically loading all dissectors (was: Re: Finding duplicate (
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From: Stephen Fisher <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 11:54:16 -0600
On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 02:17:33PM -0400, Ed Beroset wrote:

> Speaking of more limited platforms, I wonder about about a way of 
> reducing both startup time and memory usage by having the dissectors 
> dynamically loaded (as with the current plug-in mechanism) rather than 
> statically linked.  The current model of adding all dissectors to the 
> main code means that Wireshark will keep getting bigger and bigger.  I 
> wonder if it might not be time to ponder if that's the best possible 
> option.

I thought about this not too long ago, and the problem is that the code 
to determine which packets belong to which dissector is in the 
dissectors themselves, so you have to load all of them anyway.