Has there been any discussions with folks from Apple that worked on the PCAPNG API to donate there code to tcpdump project? I am sure many (including Apple) would benefit from single source for this code as far as maintenance is concerned.
Martin On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 1:32 PM, Guy Harris <g...@alum.mit.edu> wrote: > On Dec 6, 2016, at 10:15 AM, Martin Dubuc <martind1...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I am working on an application that requires to store packets in PCAPNG > > format. My understanding is that there isn't support for saving packets > in > > PCAPNG format in the current code base. I have noticed that Apple has > > created an API in its custom version of libpcap (latest version can be > > viewed at https://opensource.apple.com/source/libpcap/libpcap-67/ > libpcap/ > > and is based on libpcap-1.7.4), and the extension seems to be open > source. > > Open source *but* licensed under the Apple Public Source License Version > 2.0: > > https://opensource.apple.com/apsl > > which says: > > 1.1 "Applicable Patent Rights" mean: (a) in the case where > Apple is the grantor of rights, (i) claims of patents that are now or > hereafter acquired, owned by or assigned to Apple and (ii) that cover > subject matter contained in the Original Code, but only to the extent > necessary to use, reproduce and/or distribute the Original Code without > infringement; and (b) in the case where You are the grantor of rights, (i) > claims of patents that are now or hereafter acquired, owned by or assigned > to You and (ii) that cover subject matter in Your Modifications, taken > alone or in combination with Original Code. > > ... > > 2. Permitted Uses; Conditions & Restrictions. Subject to > the terms and conditions of this License, Apple hereby grants You, > effective on the date You accept this License and download the Original > Code, a world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license, to the extent of > Apple's Applicable Patent Rights and copyrights covering the Original Code, > to do the following: > > ... > > 2.4 Third Party Rights. You expressly acknowledge and agree > that although Apple and each Contributor grants the licenses to their > respective portions of the Covered Code set forth herein, no assurances are > provided by Apple or any Contributor that the Covered Code does not > infringe the patent or other intellectual property rights of any other > entity. Apple and each Contributor disclaim any liability to You for claims > brought by any other entity based on infringement of intellectual property > rights or otherwise. As a condition to exercising the rights and licenses > granted hereunder, You hereby assume sole responsibility to secure any > other intellectual property rights needed, if any. For example, if a third > party patent license is required to allow You to distribute the Covered > Code, it is Your responsibility to acquire that license before distributing > the Covered Code. > > 3. Your Grants. In consideration of, and as a condition to, > the licenses granted to You under this License, You hereby grant to any > person or entity receiving or distributing Covered Code under this License > a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable license, under Your > Applicable Patent Rights and other intellectual property rights (other than > patent) owned or controlled by You, to use, reproduce, display, perform, > modify, sublicense, distribute and Externally Deploy Your Modifications of > the same scope and extent as Apple's licenses under Sections 2.1 and 2.2 > above. > > ... > > 5. Limitations on Patent License. Except as expressly > stated in Section 2, no other patent rights, express or implied, are > granted by Apple herein. Modifications and/or Larger Works may require > additional patent licenses from Apple which Apple may grant in its sole > discretion. > > ... > > 12. Termination. > > 12.1 Termination. This License and the rights granted > hereunder will terminate: > > (a) automatically without notice from Apple if You fail to > comply with any term(s) of this License and fail to cure such breach within > 30 days of becoming aware of such breach; > (b) immediately in the event of the circumstances described in > Section 13.5(b); or > (c) automatically without notice from Apple if You, at any > time during the term of this License, commence an action for patent > infringement against Apple; provided that Apple did not first commence an > action for patent infringement against You in that instance. > > I'm not sure whether the patent-related clauses - especially the > "Termination" clause - would cause any vendors or distributors who > currently include libpcap under its patent-clause-free BSD license not to > want to include it if it includes patent clauses of that sort. > > > Is there a plan to merge this to the libpcap at some point? Or is there > > plan to implement something else? > > My inclination was to implement *some* APIs for reading files (pcapng or > pcap, using the same API, so programs can transparently *read* either file > type), with the full capabilities of pcapng supported, and for writing > pcapng files, with a separate implementation. > > If we can get away with implementing Apple's API independently, under the > same BSD license as is used for the rest of libpcap, and that API can be > used to read either pcap or pcapng files, and it supports the full > capabilities of pcapng and allows support for future pcapng capabilities > (as well as vendor extensions), that would probably be the right choice; > otherwise, we'll implement a separate API, but try to do so in a way that > allows Apple to continue to provide their API. (They don't document the > API in any man page other than the pcapng man page in the source, so they > might consider it a private interface and be willing to use a different > one, especially if, as I expect we'll do, we provide a version of tcpdump > that supports the new API if available. _______________________________________________ tcpdump-workers mailing list tcpdump-workers@lists.tcpdump.org https://lists.sandelman.ca/mailman/listinfo/tcpdump-workers
