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On 06/12/2016 19:32, Guy Harris wrote:
> On Dec 6, 2016, at 10:15 AM, Martin Dubuc 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
>
> [...]
>
> 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;
It's seems that Apple has changed their license to: "License: BSD."
See:
https://opensource.apple.com/source/libpcap/libpcap-98.40.1/libpcap/LICENSE.auto.html
or
https://opensource.apple.com/source/tcpdump/tcpdump-100.100.2/tcpdump/LICENSE.auto.html
> 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.
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