path: root/doc/README.developer

Tabsize: 4

This file is a HOWTO for Wireshark developers. It describes general development
and coding practices for contributing to Wireshark no matter which part of
Wireshark you want to work on.

To learn how to write a dissector, read this first, then read the file
README.dissector.

This file is compiled to give in depth information on Wireshark.
It is by no means all inclusive and complete. Please feel free to send
remarks and patches to the developer mailing list.

0. Prerequisites.

Before starting to develop a new dissector, a "running" Wireshark build
environment is required - there's no such thing as a standalone "dissector
build toolkit".

How to setup such an environment is platform dependent; detailed information
about these steps can be found in the "Developer's Guide" (available from:
https://www.wireshark.org) and in the INSTALL and README files of the sources
root dir.

0.1. General README files.

You'll find additional information in the following README files:

- README.capture        - the capture engine internals
- README.design         - Wireshark software design - incomplete
- README.developer      - this file
- README.dissector      - How to dissect a packet
- README.display_filter - Display Filter Engine
- README.idl2wrs        - CORBA IDL converter
- README.packaging      - how to distribute a software package containing WS
- README.regression     - regression testing of WS and TS
- README.stats_tree     - a tree statistics counting specific packets
- README.tapping        - "tap" a dissector to get protocol specific events
- README.xml-output     - how to work with the PDML exported output
- wiretap/README.developer - how to add additional capture file types to
  Wiretap

0.2. Dissector related README files.

You'll find additional dissector related information in the file
README.dissector as well as the following README files:

- README.heuristic      - what are heuristic dissectors and how to write them
- README.plugins        - how to "pluginize" a dissector
- README.request_response_tracking - how to track req./resp. times and such
- README.wmem           - how to obtain "memory leak free" memory

0.3 Contributors

James Coe <jammer[AT]cin.net>
Gilbert Ramirez <gram[AT]alumni.rice.edu>
Jeff Foster <jfoste[AT]woodward.com>
Olivier Abad <oabad[AT]cybercable.fr>
Laurent Deniel <laurent.deniel[AT]free.fr>
Gerald Combs <gerald[AT]wireshark.org>
Guy Harris <guy[AT]alum.mit.edu>
Ulf Lamping <ulf.lamping[AT]web.de>

1. Portability.

Wireshark runs on many platforms, and can be compiled with a number of
different compilers; here are some rules for writing code that will work
on multiple platforms.

Don't use C++-style comments (comments beginning with "//" and running
to the end of the line) in C code. Wireshark's dissectors are written in
C, and thus run through C rather than C++ compilers, and not all C
compilers support C++-style comments (GCC does, but IBM's C compiler for
AIX, for example, doesn't do so by default). C++-style comments can be
used in C++ code, of course.

In general, don't use C99 features since some C compilers used to compile
Wireshark, such as Microsoft's C compiler, don't support all C99
features.  The C99 features that can be used are:

	variadic macros

Don't initialize variables in their declaration with non-constant
values. Not all compilers support this. E.g. don't use
    guint32 i = somearray[2];
use
    guint32 i;
    i = somearray[2];
instead.

Don't use zero-length arrays; not all compilers support them.  If an
array would have no members, just leave it out.

Don't declare variables in the middle of executable code; not all C
compilers support that.  Variables should be declared outside a
function, or at the beginning of a function or compound statement.

Don't use anonymous unions; not all compilers support them.
Example:

    typedef struct foo {
      guint32 foo;
      union {
        guint32 foo_l;
        guint16 foo_s;
      } u;  /* have a name here */
    } foo_t;

Don't use "uchar", "u_char", "ushort", "u_short", "uint", "u_int",
"ulong", "u_long" or "boolean"; they aren't defined on all platforms.
If you want an 8-bit unsigned quantity, use "guint8"; if you want an
8-bit character value with the 8th bit not interpreted as a sign bit,
use "guchar"; if you want a 16-bit unsigned quantity, use "guint16";
if you want a 32-bit unsigned quantity, use "guint32"; and if you want
an "int-sized" unsigned quantity, use "guint"; if you want a boolean,
use "gboolean".  Use "%d", "%u", "%x", and "%o" to print those types;
don't use "%ld", "%lu", "%lx", or "%lo", as longs are 64 bits long on
many platforms, but "guint32" is 32 bits long.

Don't use "long" to mean "signed 32-bit integer", and don't use
"unsigned long" to mean "unsigned 32-bit integer"; "long"s are 64 bits
long on many platforms.  Use "gint32" for signed 32-bit integers and use
"guint32" for unsigned 32-bit integers.

Don't use "long" to mean "signed 64-bit integer" and don't use "unsigned
long" to mean "unsigned 64-bit integer"; "long"s are 32 bits long on
many other platforms.  Don't use "long long" or "unsigned long long",
either, as not all platforms support them; use "gint64" or "guint64",
which will be defined as the appropriate types for 64-bit signed and
unsigned integers.

On LLP64 data model systems (notably 64-bit Windows), "int" and "long"
are 32 bits while "size_t" and "ptrdiff_t" are 64 bits. This means that
the following will generate a compiler warning:

    int i;
    i = strlen("hello, sailor");  /* Compiler warning */

Normally, you'd just make "i" a size_t. However, many GLib and Wireshark
functions won't accept a size_t on LLP64:

    size_t i;
    char greeting[] = "hello, sailor";
    guint byte_after_greet;

    i = strlen(greeting);
    byte_after_greet = tvb_get_guint8(tvb, i); /* Compiler warning */

Try to use the appropriate data type when you can. When you can't, you
will have to cast to a compatible data type, e.g.

    size_t i;
    char greeting[] = "hello, sailor";
    guint byte_after_greet;

    i = strlen(greeting);
    byte_after_greet = tvb_get_guint8(tvb, (gint) i); /* OK */

or

    gint i;
    char greeting[] = "hello, sailor";
    guint byte_after_greet;

    i = (gint) strlen(greeting);
    byte_after_greet = tvb_get_guint8(tvb, i); /* OK */

See http://www.unix.org/version2/whatsnew/lp64_wp.html for more
information on the sizes of common types in different data models.

When printing or displaying the values of 64-bit integral data types,
don't use "%lld", "%llu", "%llx", or "%llo" - not all platforms
support "%ll" for printing 64-bit integral data types.  Instead, for
GLib routines, and routines that use them, such as all the routines in
Wireshark that take format arguments, use G_GINT64_MODIFIER, for example:

    proto_tree_add_uint64_format_value(tree, hf_uint64, tvb, offset, len,
                                       val, "%" G_GINT64_MODIFIER "u", val);

When specifying an integral constant that doesn't fit in 32 bits, don't
use "LL" at the end of the constant - not all compilers use "LL" for
that.  Instead, put the constant in a call to the "G_GINT64_CONSTANT()"
macro, e.g.

    G_GINT64_CONSTANT(-11644473600), G_GUINT64_CONSTANT(11644473600)

rather than

    -11644473600LL, 11644473600ULL

Don't assume that you can scan through a va_list initialized by va_start
more than once without closing it with va_end and re-initializing it with
va_start.  This applies even if you're not scanning through it yourself,
but are calling a routine that scans through it, such as vfprintf() or
one of the routines in Wireshark that takes a format and a va_list as an
argument.  You must do

    va_start(ap, format);
    call_routine1(xxx, format, ap);
    va_end(ap);
    va_start(ap, format);
    call_routine2(xxx, format, ap);
    va_end(ap);

rather
    va_start(ap, format);
    call_routine1(xxx, format, ap);
    call_routine2(xxx, format, ap);
    va_end(ap);

Don't use a label without a statement following it.  For example,
something such as

    if (...) {

        ...

    done:
    }

will not work with all compilers - you have to do

    if (...) {

        ...

    done:
        ;
    }

with some statement, even if it's a null statement, after the label.

Don't use "bzero()", "bcopy()", or "bcmp()"; instead, use the ANSI C
routines

    "memset()" (with zero as the second argument, so that it sets
    all the bytes to zero);

    "memcpy()" or "memmove()" (note that the first and second
    arguments to "memcpy()" are in the reverse order to the
    arguments to "bcopy()"; note also that "bcopy()" is typically
    guaranteed to work on overlapping memory regions, while
    "memcpy()" isn't, so if you may be copying from one region to a
    region that overlaps it, use "memmove()", not "memcpy()" - but
    "memcpy()" might be faster as a result of not guaranteeing
    correct operation on overlapping memory regions);

    and "memcmp()" (note that "memcmp()" returns 0, 1, or -1, doing
    an ordered comparison, rather than just returning 0 for "equal"
    and 1 for "not equal", as "bcmp()" does).

Not all platforms necessarily have "bzero()"/"bcopy()"/"bcmp()", and
those that do might not declare them in the header file on which they're
declared on your platform.

Don't use "index()" or "rindex()"; instead, use the ANSI C equivalents,
"strchr()" and "strrchr()".  Not all platforms necessarily have
"index()" or "rindex()", and those that do might not declare them in the
header file on which they're declared on your platform.

Don't use "tvb_get_ptr().  If you must use it, keep in mind that the pointer
returned by a call to "tvb_get_ptr()" is not guaranteed to be aligned on any
particular byte boundary; this means that you cannot safely cast it to any
data type other than a pointer to "char", unsigned char", "guint8", or other
one-byte data types.  Casting a pointer returned by tvb_get_ptr() into any
multi-byte data type or structure may cause crashes on some platforms (even
if it does not crash on x86-based PCs).  Even if such mis-aligned accesses
don't crash on your platform they will be slower than properly aligned
accesses would be.  Furthermore, the data in a packet is not necessarily in
the byte order of the machine on which Wireshark is running.  Use the tvbuff
routines to extract individual items from the packet, or, better yet, use
"proto_tree_add_item()" and let it extract the items for you.

Don't use structures that overlay packet data, or into which you copy
packet data; the C programming language does not guarantee any
particular alignment of fields within a structure, and even the
extensions that try to guarantee that are compiler-specific and not
necessarily supported by all compilers used to build Wireshark.  Using
bitfields in those structures is even worse; the order of bitfields
is not guaranteed.

Don't use "ntohs()", "ntohl()", "htons()", or "htonl()"; the header
files required to define or declare them differ between platforms, and
you might be able to get away with not including the appropriate header
file on your platform but that might not work on other platforms.
Instead, use "g_ntohs()", "g_ntohl()", "g_htons()", and "g_htonl()";
those are declared by <glib.h>, and you'll need to include that anyway,
as Wireshark header files that all dissectors must include use stuff from
<glib.h>.

Don't fetch a little-endian value using "tvb_get_ntohs() or
"tvb_get_ntohl()" and then using "g_ntohs()", "g_htons()", "g_ntohl()",
or "g_htonl()" on the resulting value - the g_ routines in question
convert between network byte order (big-endian) and *host* byte order,
not *little-endian* byte order; not all machines on which Wireshark runs
are little-endian, even though PCs are.  Fetch those values using
"tvb_get_letohs()" and "tvb_get_letohl()".

Don't put a comma after the last element of an enum - some compilers may
either warn about it (producing extra noise) or refuse to accept it.

Do not use "open()", "rename()", "mkdir()", "stat()", "unlink()", "remove()",
"fopen()", "freopen()" directly.  Instead use "ws_open()", "ws_rename()",
"ws_mkdir()", "ws_stat()", "ws_unlink()", "ws_remove()", "ws_fopen()",
"ws_freopen()": these wrapper functions change the path and file name from
UTF8 to UTF16 on Windows allowing the functions to work correctly when the
path or file name contain non-ASCII characters.

Also, use ws_read(), ws_write(), ws_lseek(), ws_dup(), ws_fstat(), and
ws_fdopen(), rather than read(), write(), lseek(), dup(), fstat(), and
fdopen() on descriptors returned by ws_open().

Those functions are declared in <wsutil/file_util.h>; include that
header in any code that uses any of those routines.

When opening a file with "ws_fopen()", "ws_freopen()", or "ws_fdopen()", if
the file contains ASCII text, use "r", "w", "a", and so on as the open mode
- but if it contains binary data, use "rb", "wb", and so on.  On
Windows, if a file is opened in a text mode, writing a byte with the
value of octal 12 (newline) to the file causes two bytes, one with the
value octal 15 (carriage return) and one with the value octal 12, to be
written to the file, and causes bytes with the value octal 15 to be
discarded when reading the file (to translate between C's UNIX-style
lines that end with newline and Windows' DEC-style lines that end with
carriage return/line feed).

In addition, that also means that when opening or creating a binary
file, you must use "ws_open()" (with O_CREAT and possibly O_TRUNC if the
file is to be created if it doesn't exist), and OR in the O_BINARY flag,
even on UN*X - O_BINARY is defined by <wsutil/file_util.h> as 0 on UN*X.

Do not include <unistd.h>, <fcntl.h>, or <io.h> to declare any of the
routines listed as replaced by routines in <wsutil/file_util.h>;
instead, just include <wsutil/file_util.h>.

If you need the declarations of other functions defined by <unistd.h>,
don't include it without protecting it with

    #ifdef HAVE_UNISTD_H

        ...

    #endif

Don't use forward declarations of static arrays without a specified size
in a fashion such as this:

    static const value_string foo_vals[];

        ...

    static const value_string foo_vals[] = {
        { 0,        "Red" },
        { 1,        "Green" },
        { 2,        "Blue" },
        { 0,        NULL }
    };

as some compilers will reject the first of those statements.  Instead,
initialize the array at the point at which it's first declared, so that
the size is known.

Don't put a comma after the last tuple of an initializer of an array.

For #define names and enum member names, prefix the names with a tag so
as to avoid collisions with other names - this might be more of an issue
on Windows, as it appears to #define names such as DELETE and
OPTIONAL.

Don't use the "numbered argument" feature that many UNIX printf's
implement, e.g.:

    g_snprintf(add_string, 30, " - (%1$d) (0x%1$04x)", value);

as not all UNIX printf's implement it, and Windows printf doesn't appear
to implement it.  Use something like

    g_snprintf(add_string, 30, " - (%d) (0x%04x)", value, value);

instead.

Don't use

    case N ... M:

as that's not supported by all compilers.

snprintf() -> g_snprintf()
snprintf() is not available on all platforms, so it's a good idea to use the
g_snprintf() function declared by <glib.h> instead.

tmpnam() -> mkstemp()
tmpnam is insecure and should not be used any more. Wireshark brings its
own mkstemp implementation for use on platforms that lack mkstemp.
Note: mkstemp does not accept NULL as a parameter.

Wireshark supports platforms with GLib 2.14[.x]/GTK+ 2.12[.x] or newer.
If a Glib/GTK+ mechanism is available only in Glib/GTK+ versions newer
than 2.14/2.12 then use "#if GLIB_CHECK_VERSION(...)" or "#if
GTK_CHECK_VERSION(...)" to conditionally compile code using that
mechanism.

When different code must be used on UN*X and Win32, use a #if or #ifdef
that tests _WIN32, not WIN32.  Try to write code portably whenever
possible, however; note that there are some routines in Wireshark with
platform-dependent implementations and platform-independent APIs, such
as the routines in epan/filesystem.c, allowing the code that calls it to
be written portably without #ifdefs.

Wireshark uses libgcrypt as general-purpose crypto library. To use it from
your dissector, protect libgcrypt calls with #ifdef HAVE_LIBGCRYPT. Don't
include gcrypt.h directly, include the wrapper file wsutil/wsgcrypt.h
instead.

2. String handling

Do not use functions such as strcat() or strcpy().
A lot of work has been done to remove the existing calls to these functions and
we do not want any new callers of these functions.

Instead use g_snprintf() since that function will if used correctly prevent
buffer overflows for large strings.

Be sure that all pointers passed to %s specifiers in format strings are non-
NULL. Some implementations will automatically replace NULL pointers with the
string "(NULL)", but most will not.

When using a buffer to create a string, do not use a buffer stored on the stack.
I.e. do not use a buffer declared as

   char buffer[1024];

instead allocate a buffer dynamically using the string-specific or plain wmem
routines (see README.wmem) such as

   wmem_strbuf_t *strbuf;
   strbuf = wmem_strbuf_new(wmem_packet_scope(), "");
   wmem_strbuf_append_printf(strbuf, ...

or

   char *buffer=NULL;
   ...
   #define MAX_BUFFER 1024
   buffer=wmem_alloc(wmem_packet_scope(), MAX_BUFFER);
   buffer[0]='\0';
   ...
   g_snprintf(buffer, MAX_BUFFER, ...

This avoids the stack from being corrupted in case there is a bug in your code
that accidentally writes beyond the end of the buffer.


If you write a routine that will create and return a pointer to a filled in
string and if that buffer will not be further processed or appended to after
the routine returns (except being added to the proto tree),
do not preallocate the buffer to fill in and pass as a parameter instead
pass a pointer to a pointer to the function and return a pointer to a
wmem-allocated buffer that will be automatically freed. (see README.wmem)

I.e. do not write code such as
  static void
  foo_to_str(char *string, ... ){
     <fill in string>
  }
  ...
     char buffer[1024];
     ...
     foo_to_str(buffer, ...
     proto_tree_add_string(... buffer ...

instead write the code as
  static void
  foo_to_str(char **buffer, ...
    #define MAX_BUFFER x
    *buffer=wmem_alloc(wmem_packet_scope(), MAX_BUFFER);
    <fill in *buffer>
  }
  ...
    char *buffer;
    ...
    foo_to_str(&buffer, ...
    proto_tree_add_string(... *buffer ...

Use wmem_ allocated buffers. They are very fast and nice. These buffers are all
automatically free()d when the dissection of the current packet ends so you
don't have to worry about free()ing them explicitly in order to not leak memory.
Please read README.wmem.

Don't use non-ASCII characters in source files; not all compiler
environments will be using the same encoding for non-ASCII characters,
and at least one compiler (Microsoft's Visual C) will, in environments
with double-byte character encodings, such as many Asian environments,
fail if it sees a byte sequence in a source file that doesn't correspond
to a valid character.  This causes source files using either an ISO
8859/n single-byte character encoding or UTF-8 to fail to compile.  Even
if the compiler doesn't fail, there is no guarantee that the compiler,
or a developer's text editor, will interpret the characters the way you
intend them to be interpreted.

3. Robustness.

Wireshark is not guaranteed to read only network traces that contain correctly-
formed packets. Wireshark is commonly used to track down networking
problems, and the problems might be due to a buggy protocol implementation
sending out bad packets.

Therefore, code does not only have to be able to handle
correctly-formed packets without, for example, crashing or looping
infinitely, they also have to be able to handle *incorrectly*-formed
packets without crashing or looping infinitely.

Here are some suggestions for making code more robust in the face
of incorrectly-formed packets:

Do *NOT* use "g_assert()" or "g_assert_not_reached()" in dissectors.
*NO* value in a packet's data should be considered "wrong" in the sense
that it's a problem with the dissector if found; if it cannot do
anything else with a particular value from a packet's data, the
dissector should put into the protocol tree an indication that the
value is invalid, and should return.  The "expert" mechanism should be
used for that purpose.

If there is a case where you are checking not for an invalid data item
in the packet, but for a bug in the dissector (for example, an
assumption being made at a particular point in the code about the
internal state of the dissector), use the DISSECTOR_ASSERT macro for
that purpose; this will put into the protocol tree an indication that
the dissector has a bug in it, and will not crash the application.

If you are allocating a chunk of memory to contain data from a packet,
or to contain information derived from data in a packet, and the size of
the chunk of memory is derived from a size field in the packet, make
sure all the data is present in the packet before allocating the buffer.
Doing so means that:

    1) Wireshark won't leak that chunk of memory if an attempt to
       fetch data not present in the packet throws an exception.

and

    2) it won't crash trying to allocate an absurdly-large chunk of
       memory if the size field has a bogus large value.

If you're fetching into such a chunk of memory a string from the buffer,
and the string has a specified size, you can use "tvb_get_*_string()",
which will check whether the entire string is present before allocating
a buffer for the string, and will also put a trailing '\0' at the end of
the buffer.

If you're fetching into such a chunk of memory a 2-byte Unicode string
from the buffer, and the string has a specified size, you can use
"tvb_get_faked_unicode()", which will check whether the entire string
is present before allocating a buffer for the string, and will also
put a trailing '\0' at the end of the buffer.  The resulting string will be
a sequence of single-byte characters; the only Unicode characters that
will be handled correctly are those in the ASCII range.  (Wireshark's
ability to handle non-ASCII strings is limited; it needs to be
improved.)

If you're fetching into such a chunk of memory a sequence of bytes from
the buffer, and the sequence has a specified size, you can use
"tvb_memdup()", which will check whether the entire sequence is present
before allocating a buffer for it.

Otherwise, you can check whether the data is present by using
"tvb_ensure_bytes_exist()" although this frequently is not needed: the
TVB-accessor routines can handle requests to read data beyond the end of
the TVB (by throwing an exception which will either mark the frame as
truncated--not all the data was captured--or as malformed).

Note also that you should only fetch string data into a fixed-length
buffer if the code ensures that no more bytes than will fit into the
buffer are fetched ("the protocol ensures" isn't good enough, as
protocol specifications can't ensure only packets that conform to the
specification will be transmitted or that only packets for the protocol
in question will be interpreted as packets for that protocol by
Wireshark).  If there's no maximum length of string data to be fetched,
routines such as "tvb_get_*_string()" are safer, as they allocate a buffer
large enough to hold the string.  (Note that some variants of this call
require you to free the string once you're finished with it.)

If you have gotten a pointer using "tvb_get_ptr()" (which you should not
have: you should seriously consider a better alternative to this function),
you must make sure that you do not refer to any data past the length passed
as the last argument to "tvb_get_ptr()"; while the various "tvb_get"
routines perform bounds checking and throw an exception if you refer to data
not available in the tvbuff, direct references through a pointer gotten from
"tvb_get_ptr()" do not do any bounds checking.

If you have a loop that dissects a sequence of items, each of which has
a length field, with the offset in the tvbuff advanced by the length of
the item, then, if the length field is the total length of the item, and
thus can be zero, you *MUST* check for a zero-length item and abort the
loop if you see one.  Otherwise, a zero-length item could cause the
dissector to loop infinitely.  You should also check that the offset,
after having the length added to it, is greater than the offset before
the length was added to it, if the length field is greater than 24 bits
long, so that, if the length value is *very* large and adding it to the
offset causes an overflow, that overflow is detected.

If you have a

    for (i = {start}; i < {end}; i++)

loop, make sure that the type of the loop index variable is large enough
to hold the maximum {end} value plus 1; otherwise, the loop index
variable can overflow before it ever reaches its maximum value.  In
particular, be very careful when using gint8, guint8, gint16, or guint16
variables as loop indices; you almost always want to use an "int"/"gint"
or "unsigned int"/"guint" as the loop index rather than a shorter type.

If you are fetching a length field from the buffer, corresponding to the
length of a portion of the packet, and subtracting from that length a
value corresponding to the length of, for example, a header in the
packet portion in question, *ALWAYS* check that the value of the length
field is greater than or equal to the length you're subtracting from it,
and report an error in the packet and stop dissecting the packet if it's
less than the length you're subtracting from it.  Otherwise, the
resulting length value will be negative, which will either cause errors
in the dissector or routines called by the dissector, or, if the value
is interpreted as an unsigned integer, will cause the value to be
interpreted as a very large positive value.

Any tvbuff offset that is added to as processing is done on a packet
should be stored in a 32-bit variable, such as an "int"; if you store it
in an 8-bit or 16-bit variable, you run the risk of the variable
overflowing.

sprintf() -> g_snprintf()
Prevent yourself from using the sprintf() function, as it does not test the
length of the given output buffer and might be writing into unintended memory
areas. This function is one of the main causes of security problems like buffer
exploits and many other bugs that are very hard to find. It's much better to
use the g_snprintf() function declared by <glib.h> instead.

You should test your dissector against incorrectly-formed packets.  This
can be done using the randpkt and editcap utilities that come with the
Wireshark distribution.  Testing using randpkt can be done by generating
output at the same layer as your protocol, and forcing Wireshark/TShark
to decode it as your protocol, e.g. if your protocol sits on top of UDP:

    randpkt -c 50000 -t dns randpkt.pcap
    tshark -nVr randpkt.pcap -d udp.port==53,<myproto>

Testing using editcap can be done using preexisting capture files and the
"-E" flag, which introduces errors in a capture file.  E.g.:

    editcap -E 0.03 infile.pcap outfile.pcap
    tshark -nVr outfile.pcap

The script fuzz-test.sh is available to help automate these tests.

4. Name convention.

Wireshark uses the underscore_convention rather than the InterCapConvention for
function names, so new code should probably use underscores rather than
intercaps for functions and variable names. This is especially important if you
are writing code that will be called from outside your code.  We are just
trying to keep things consistent for other developers.

5. White space convention.

Please avoid using tab expansions different from 8 column widths, as not all
text editors in use by the developers support this. For a detailed
discussion of tabs, spaces, and indentation, see

    http://www.jwz.org/doc/tabs-vs-spaces.html

When creating a new file, you are free to choose an indentation logic.
Most of the files in Wireshark tend to use 2-space or 4-space
indentation. You are encouraged to write a short comment on the
indentation logic at the beginning of this new files.  The
tabs-vs-spaces document above provides examples of Emacs and vi
modelines for this purpose.

Please do not leave trailing whitespace (spaces/tabs) on lines.

When editing an existing file, try following the existing indentation
logic and even if it very tempting, never ever use a restyler/reindenter
utility on an existing file.  If you run across wildly varying
indentation styles within the same file, it might be helpful to send a
note to wireshark-dev for guidance.

6. Compiler warnings

You should write code that is free of compiler warnings. Such warnings will
often indicate questionable code and sometimes even real bugs, so it's best
to avoid warnings at all.

The compiler flags in the Makefiles are set to "treat warnings as errors",
so your code won't even compile when warnings occur.

/*
 * Editor modelines  -  https://www.wireshark.org/tools/modelines.html
 *
 * Local variables:
 * c-basic-offset: 4
 * tab-width: 8
 * indent-tabs-mode: nil
 * End:
 *
 * vi: set shiftwidth=4 tabstop=8 expandtab:
 * :indentSize=4:tabSize=8:noTabs=true:
 */