instead of repeating the capture file format description over and over again (this list also tends to become outdated), just give a small description and refer to the Ethereal man page

svn path=/trunk/; revision=16997

1 files changed, 24 insertions, 108 deletions

diff --git a/doc/editcap.pod b/doc/editcap.pod
index 99cf40ae13..40364c4d85 100644
--- a/doc/editcap.pod
+++ b/doc/editcap.pod
@@ -26,17 +26,28 @@ B<Editcap> is a program that reads some or all of the captured packets from the
 I<infile>, optionally converts them in various ways and writes the 
 resulting packets to the capture I<outfile> (or outfiles). 
 
-By default, it reads all packets from the I<infile> and writes them to the I<outfile>
-in libpcap file format.
+By default, it reads all packets from the I<infile> and writes them to the 
+I<outfile> in libpcap file format.
+
+A list of packet numbers can be specified on the command line; ranges of 
+packet numbers can be specified as I<start>-I<end>, referring to all packets 
+from I<start> to I<end>.
+The selected packets with those numbers will I<not> be written to the 
+capture file. 
+If the B<-r> flag is specified, the whole packet selection is reversed; 
+in that case I<only> the selected packets will be written to the capture file.
+
+B<Editcap> is able to detect, read and write the same capture files that 
+are supported by B<Ethereal>.
+The input file doesn't need a specific filename extension, the file 
+format and an optional gzip compression will be automatically detected.
+The I<capture file format> section of I<ethereal(1)> or
+I<http://www.ethereal.com/docs/man-pages/ethereal.1.html>
+provides a detailed description.
 
-A list of packet numbers can be specified on the command line; ranges of packet numbers can be
-specified as I<start>-I<end>, referring to all packets from I<start> to
-I<end>.
-The selected packets with those numbers will I<not> be written to the capture file. 
-If the B<-r> flag is specified, the whole packet selection is reversed; in that case I<only> the selected packets
-will be written to the capture file.  
-
-The supported input and output capture file formats are described in a section below.
+B<Editcap> can write the file in several output formats. The B<-F>
+flag can be used to specify the format in which to write the capture
+file, B<editcap -F> provides a list of the available output formats.
 
 =head1 OPTIONS
 
@@ -174,104 +185,6 @@ To introduce 5% random errors in a capture file use:
 
 =back
 
-=head1 Capture File Formats
-
-There is no need to tell B<Editcap> what type of
-file you are reading; it will determine the file type by itself. 
-
-B<Editcap> is also capable of reading any of these file formats if they
-are compressed using gzip. It recognizes this directly from the
-file; the '.gz' extension is not required for this purpose.
-
-The following I<input> file formats are supported:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-libpcap/WinPcap, tcpdump and various other tools using tcpdump's capture format
-
-=item *
-B<snoop> and B<atmsnoop>
-
-=item *
-Shomiti/Finisar B<Surveyor> captures
-
-=item *
-Novell B<LANalyzer> captures
-
-=item *
-Microsoft B<Network Monitor> captures
-
-=item *
-AIX's B<iptrace> captures
-
-=item *
-Cinco Networks B<NetXRay> captures
-
-=item *
-Network Associates Windows-based B<Sniffer> captures
-
-=item *
-Network General/Network Associates DOS-based B<Sniffer> (compressed or uncompressed) captures
-
-=item *
-AG Group/WildPackets B<EtherPeek>/B<TokenPeek>/B<AiroPeek>/B<EtherHelp>/B<PacketGrabber> captures
-
-=item *
-B<RADCOM>'s WAN/LAN analyzer captures
-
-=item *
-Network Instruments B<Observer> version 9 captures
-
-=item *
-B<Lucent/Ascend> router debug output
-
-=item *
-files from HP-UX's B<nettl>
-
-=item *
-B<Toshiba's> ISDN routers dump output
-
-=item *
-the output from B<i4btrace> from the ISDN4BSD project
-
-=item *
-traces from the B<EyeSDN> USB S0.
-
-=item *
-the output in B<IPLog> format from the Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection System
-
-=item *
-B<pppd logs> (pppdump format)
-
-=item *
-the output from VMS's B<TCPIPtrace>/B<TCPtrace>/B<UCX$TRACE> utilities
-
-=item *
-the text output from the B<DBS Etherwatch> VMS utility
-
-=item *
-Visual Networks' B<Visual UpTime> traffic capture
-
-=item *
-the output from B<CoSine> L2 debug
-
-=item *
-the output from Accellent's B<5Views> LAN agents
-
-=item *
-Endace Measurement Systems' ERF format captures 
-
-=item *
-Linux Bluez Bluetooth stack B<hcidump -w> traces
-
-=back
-
-B<Editcap> can write the file in several output formats. The B<-F>
-flag can be used to specify the format in which to write the capture
-file, B<editcap -F> provides
-a list of the available output formats.
-
 =head1 SEE ALSO
 
 I<tcpdump(8)>, I<pcap(3)>, I<ethereal(1)>, I<mergecap(1)>
@@ -281,6 +194,9 @@ I<tcpdump(8)>, I<pcap(3)>, I<ethereal(1)>, I<mergecap(1)>
 B<Editcap> is part of the B<Ethereal> distribution.  The latest version
 of B<Ethereal> can be found at B<http://www.ethereal.com>.
 
+HTML versions of the Ethereal project man pages are available at:
+http://www.ethereal.com/docs/man-pages
+
 =head1 AUTHORS
 
   Original Author