1 # Some Information for Contributors
2 Thank you for considering to make a contribution to tcpdump! Please use the
3 guidelines below to achieve the best results and experience for everyone.
5 ## How to report bugs and other problems
6 **To report a security issue (segfault, buffer overflow, infinite loop, arbitrary
7 code execution etc) please send an e-mail to security@tcpdump.org, do not use
10 To report a non-security problem (failure to compile, incorrect output in the
11 protocol printout, missing support for a particular protocol etc) please check
12 first that it reproduces with the latest stable release of tcpdump and the latest
13 stable release of libpcap. If it does, please check that the problem reproduces
14 with the current git master branch of tcpdump and the current git master branch of
15 libpcap. If it does (and it is not a security-related problem, otherwise see
16 above), please navigate to the
17 [bug tracker](https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump/issues)
18 and check if the problem has already been reported. If it has not, please open
19 a new issue and provide the following details:
21 * tcpdump and libpcap version (`tcpdump --version`)
22 * operating system name and version and any other details that may be relevant
23 (`uname -a`, compiler name and version, CPU type etc.)
24 * custom `configure`/`cmake` flags, if any
25 * statement of the problem
28 Please note that if you know exactly how to solve the problem and the solution
29 would not be too intrusive, it would be best to contribute some development time
30 and to open a pull request instead as discussed below.
32 Still not sure how to do? Feel free to
33 [subscribe to the mailing list](https://www.tcpdump.org/#mailing-lists)
37 ## How to add new code and to update existing code
39 1) Check that there isn't a pull request already opened for the changes you
42 2) [Fork](https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/) the tcpdump
43 [repository](https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump).
45 3) The easiest way to test your changes on multiple operating systems and
46 architectures is to let the upstream CI test your pull request (more on
49 4) Setup your git working copy
51 git clone https://github.com/<username>/tcpdump.git
53 git remote add upstream https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump
57 5) Do a `touch .devel` in your working directory.
58 Currently, the effect is
59 * add (via `configure`, in `Makefile`) some warnings options (`-Wall`,
60 `-Wmissing-prototypes`, `-Wstrict-prototypes`, ...) to the compiler if it
61 supports these options,
62 * have the `Makefile` support `make depend` and the `configure` script run it.
64 6) Configure and build
66 ./configure && make -s && make check
70 The `tests` directory contains regression tests of the dissection of captured
71 packets. Those captured packets were saved running tcpdump with option
72 `-w sample.pcap`. Additional options, such as `-n`, are used to create relevant
73 and reproducible output; `-#` is used to indicate which particular packets
74 have output that differs. The tests are run with the `TZ` environment
75 variable set to `GMT0`, so that UTC, rather than the local time where the
76 tests are being run, is used when "local time" values are printed. The
77 actual test compares the current text output with the expected result
78 (`sample.out`) saved from a previous version.
80 Any new/updated fields in a dissector must be present in a `sample.pcap` file
81 and the corresponding output file.
83 Configuration is set in `tests/TESTLIST`.
84 Each line in this file has the following format:
86 test-name sample.pcap sample.out tcpdump-options
89 The `sample.out` file can be produced as follows:
91 (cd tests && TZ=GMT0 ../tcpdump -# -n -r sample.pcap tcpdump-options > sample.out)
94 Or, for convenience, use `./update-test.sh test-name`
96 It is often useful to have test outputs with different verbosity levels
97 (none, `-v`, `-vv`, `-vvv`, etc.) depending on the code.
99 8) Test using `make check` (current build options) and `./build_matrix.sh`
100 (a multitude of build options, build systems and compilers). If you can,
101 test on more than one operating system. Don't send a pull request until
104 9) Try to rebase your commits to keep the history simple.
107 git rebase upstream/master
109 (If the rebase fails and you cannot resolve, issue `git rebase --abort`
110 and ask for help in the pull request comment.)
112 10) Once 100% happy, put your work into your forked repository using `git push`.
114 11) [Initiate and send](https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests/)
116 This will trigger the upstream repository CI tests.
119 ## Code style and generic remarks
120 1) A thorough reading of some other printers code is useful.
122 2) To help learn how tcpdump works or to help debugging:
123 You can configure and build tcpdump with the instrumentation of functions:
125 $ ./configure --enable-instrument-functions
129 This generates instrumentation calls for entry and exit to functions.
130 Just after function entry and just before function exit, these
131 profiling functions are called and print the function names with
132 indentation and call level.
134 If entering in a function, it prints also the calling function name with
135 file name and line number. There may be a small shift in the line number.
137 In some cases, with Clang 11, the file number is unknown (printed '??')
138 or the line number is unknown (printed '?'). In this case, use GCC.
140 If the environment variable INSTRUMENT is
141 - unset or set to an empty string, print nothing, like with no
143 - set to "all" or "a", print all the functions names
144 - set to "global" or "g", print only the global functions names
148 $ INSTRUMENT=a ./tcpdump ...
149 $ INSTRUMENT=g ./tcpdump ...
150 $ INSTRUMENT= ./tcpdump ...
154 $ export INSTRUMENT=global
158 The library libbfd is used, therefore the binutils-dev package is required.
160 3) Put the normative reference if any as comments (RFC, etc.).
162 4) Put the format of packets/headers/options as comments if there is no
163 published normative reference.
165 5) The printer may receive incomplete packet in the buffer, truncated at any
166 random position, for example by capturing with `-s size` option.
167 This means that an attempt to fetch packet data based on the expected
168 format of the packet may run the risk of overrunning the buffer.
170 Furthermore, if the packet is complete, but is not correctly formed,
171 that can also cause a printer to overrun the buffer, as it will be
172 fetching packet data based on the expected format of the packet.
174 Therefore, integral, IPv4 address, and octet sequence values should
175 be fetched using the `GET_*()` macros, which are defined in
178 If your code reads and decodes every byte of the protocol packet, then to
179 ensure proper and complete bounds checks it would be sufficient to read all
180 packet data using the `GET_*()` macros.
182 If your code uses the macros above only on some packet data, then the gaps
183 would have to be bounds-checked using the `ND_TCHECK_*()` macros:
185 ND_TCHECK_n(p), n in { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16 }
190 where *p* points to the data not being decoded. For `ND_CHECK_n()`,
191 *n* is the length of the gap, in bytes. For `ND_CHECK_SIZE()`, the
192 length of the gap, in bytes, is the size of an item of the data type
193 to which *p* points. For `ND_CHECK_LEN()`, *l* is the length of the
196 For the `GET_*()` and `ND_TCHECK_*` macros (if not already done):
197 * Assign: `ndo->ndo_protocol = "protocol";`
198 * Define: `ND_LONGJMP_FROM_TCHECK` before including `netdissect.h`
199 * Make sure that the intersection of `GET_*()` and `ND_TCHECK_*()` is minimal,
200 but at the same time their union covers all packet data in all cases.
202 You can test the code via:
204 sudo ./tcpdump -s snaplen [-v][v][...] -i lo # in a terminal
205 sudo tcpreplay -i lo sample.pcap # in another terminal
207 You should try several values for snaplen to do various truncation.
209 * The `GET_*()` macros that fetch integral values are:
213 GET_BE_U_n(p), n in { 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 }
214 GET_BE_S_n(p), n in { 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 }
215 GET_LE_U_n(p), n in { 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 }
216 GET_LE_S_n(p), n in { 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 }
219 where *p* points to the integral value in the packet buffer. The
220 macro returns the integral value at that location.
222 `U` indicates that an unsigned value is fetched; `S` indicates that a
223 signed value is fetched. For multi-byte values, `BE` indicates that
224 a big-endian value ("network byte order") is fetched, and `LE`
225 indicates that a little-endian value is fetched. *n* is the length,
226 in bytes, of the multi-byte integral value to be fetched.
228 In addition to the bounds checking the `GET_*()` macros perform,
229 using those macros has other advantages:
231 * tcpdump runs on both big-endian and little-endian systems, so
232 fetches of multi-byte integral values must be done in a fashion
233 that works regardless of the byte order of the machine running
234 tcpdump. The `GET_BE_*()` macros will fetch a big-endian value and
235 return a host-byte-order value on both big-endian and little-endian
236 machines, and the `GET_LE_*()` macros will fetch a little-endian
237 value and return a host-byte-order value on both big-endian and
238 little-endian machines.
240 * tcpdump runs on machines that do not support unaligned access to
241 multi-byte values, and packet values are not guaranteed to be
242 aligned on the proper boundary. The `GET_BE_*()` and `GET_LE_*()`
243 macros will fetch values even if they are not aligned on the proper
246 * The `GET_*()` macros that fetch IPv4 address values are:
248 GET_IPV4_TO_HOST_ORDER(p)
249 GET_IPV4_TO_NETWORK_ORDER(p)
252 where *p* points to the address in the packet buffer.
253 `GET_IPV4_TO_HOST_ORDER()` returns the address in the byte order of
254 the host that is running tcpdump; `GET_IPV4_TO_NETWORK_ORDER()`
255 returns it in network byte order.
257 Like the integral `GET_*()` macros, these macros work correctly on
258 both big-endian and little-endian machines and will fetch values even
259 if they are not aligned on the proper boundary.
261 * The `GET_*()` macro that fetches an arbitrary sequences of bytes is:
263 GET_CPY_BYTES(dst, p, len)
266 where *dst* is the destination to which the sequence of bytes should
267 be copied, *p* points to the first byte of the sequence of bytes, and
268 *len* is the number of bytes to be copied. The bytes are copied in
269 the order in which they appear in the packet.
271 * To fetch a network address and convert it to a printable string, use
272 the following `GET_*()` macros, defined in `addrtoname.h`, to
273 perform bounds checks to make sure the entire address is within the
274 buffer and to translate the address to a string to print:
277 GET_IP6ADDR_STRING(p)
280 GET_EUI64LE_STRING(p)
281 GET_LINKADDR_STRING(p, type, len)
282 GET_ISONSAP_STRING(nsap, nsap_length)
285 `GET_IPADDR_STRING()` fetches an IPv4 address pointed to by *p* and
286 returns a string that is either a host name, if the `-n` flag wasn't
287 specified and a host name could be found for the address, or the
288 standard XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX-style representation of the address.
290 `GET_IP6ADDR_STRING()` fetches an IPv6 address pointed to by *p* and
291 returns a string that is either a host name, if the `-n` flag wasn't
292 specified and a host name could be found for the address, or the
293 standard XXXX::XXXX-style representation of the address.
295 `GET_MAC48_STRING()` fetches a 48-bit MAC address (Ethernet, 802.11,
296 etc.) pointed to by *p* and returns a string that is either a host
297 name, if the `-n` flag wasn't specified and a host name could be
298 found in the ethers file for the address, or the standard
299 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX-style representation of the address.
301 `GET_EUI64_STRING()` fetches a 64-bit EUI pointed to by *p* and
302 returns a string that is the standard XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX-style
303 representation of the address.
305 `GET_EUI64LE_STRING()` fetches a 64-bit EUI, in reverse byte order,
306 pointed to by *p* and returns a string that is the standard
307 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX-style representation of the address.
309 `GET_LINKADDR_STRING()` fetches an octet string, of length *length*
310 and type *type*, pointed to by *p* and returns a string whose format
311 depends on the value of *type*:
313 * `LINKADDR_MAC48` - if the length is 6, the string has the same
314 value as `GET_MAC48_STRING()` would return for that address,
315 otherwise, the string is a sequence of XX:XX:... values for the bytes
318 * `LINKADDR_FRELAY` - the string is "DLCI XXX", where XXX is the
319 DLCI, if the address is a valid Q.922 header, and an error indication
322 * `LINKADDR_EUI64`, `LINKADDR_ATM`, `LINKADDR_OTHER` -
323 the string is a sequence of XX:XX:... values for the bytes
326 6) When defining a structure corresponding to a packet or part of a
327 packet, so that a pointer to packet data can be cast to a pointer to
328 that structure and that structure pointer used to refer to fields in
329 the packet, use the `nd_*` types for the structure members.
331 Those types all are aligned only on a 1-byte boundary, so a
332 compiler will not assume that the structure is aligned on a boundary
333 stricter than one byte; there is no guarantee that fields in packets
334 are aligned on any particular boundary.
336 This means that all padding in the structure must be explicitly
337 declared as fields in the structure.
339 The `nd_*` types for integral values are:
341 * `nd_uintN_t`, for unsigned integral values, where *N* is the number
342 of bytes in the value.
343 * `nd_intN_t`, for signed integral values, where *N* is the number
344 of bytes in the value.
346 The `nd_*` types for IP addresses are:
348 * `nd_ipv4`, for IPv4 addresses;
349 * `nd_ipv6`, for IPv6 addresses.
351 The `nd_*` types for link-layer addresses are:
353 * `nd_mac48`, for MAC-48 (Ethernet, 802.11, etc.) addresses;
354 * `nd_eui64`, for EUI-64 values.
356 The `nd_*` type for a byte in a sequence of bytes is `nd_byte`; an
357 *N*-byte sequence should be declared as `nd_byte[N]`.
359 7) Do invalid packet checks in code: Think that your code can receive in input
360 not only a valid packet but any arbitrary random sequence of octets (packet
361 * built malformed originally by the sender or by a fuzz tester,
362 * became corrupted in transit or for some other reason).
364 Print with: `nd_print_invalid(ndo); /* to print " (invalid)" */`
366 8) Use `struct tok` for indexed strings and print them with
367 `tok2str()` or `bittok2str()` (for flags).
368 All `struct tok` must end with `{ 0, NULL }`.
370 9) Avoid empty lines in output of printers.
372 10) A commit message must have:
374 First line: Capitalized short summary in the imperative (50 chars or less)
376 If the commit concerns a protocol, the summary line must start with
379 Body: Detailed explanatory text, if necessary. Fold it to approximately
380 72 characters. There must be an empty line separating the summary from
384 11) Avoid non-ASCII characters in code and commit messages.
386 12) Use the style of the modified sources.
388 13) Don't mix declarations and code.
390 14) tcpdump requires a compiler that supports C99 or later, so C99
391 features may be used in code, but C11 or later features should not be
394 15) Avoid trailing tabs/spaces