NAME

       NetPacket - assemble/disassemble network packets at the protocol level

VERSION

       version 1.7.2

SYNOPSIS

           # NetPacket is a base class only

DESCRIPTION

       "NetPacket" provides a base class for a cluster of modules related to decoding and encoding of network
       protocols.  Each "NetPacket" descendent module knows how to encode and decode packets for the network
       protocol it implements.  Consult the documentation for the module in question for protocol-specific
       implementation.

       Note that there is no inheritance in the "NetPacket::" cluster of modules other than each protocol module
       being a "NetPacket".  This was seen to be too restrictive as imposing inheritance relationships (for
       example between the IP, UDP and TCP protocols) would make things like tunneling or other unusual
       situations difficult.

WRITING YOUR OWN "NetPacket::" MODULE

       You are encouraged to write additional "NetPacket::" modules as well as improve existing ones.  Contact
       the maintainer of the module in question with your suggestions or changes.

       The following sections are a list of suggestions and conventions for writing a "NetPacket::" module.

   Naming Conventions
       When creating a module in the "NetPacket::" namespace, it is suggested that you stick to a couple of
       conventions when naming packet contents.  This will hopefully lead to a consistent namespace making the
       "NetPacket::" easier to use.

       Content names are all lowercase, with underscores separating multiple words.  The following abbreviations
       are recommended:

                   Word                Abbreviation
                   --------------------------------
                   source              src
                   destination         dest
                   checksum            cksum
                   identifier          id
                   version             ver
                   protocol            proto

   Required Methods
       encode(), decode(), strip()

   Required Fields
       Every NetPacket:: object should have the following fields.

       _parent
           A  link  to  the  parent "NetPacket::" object in which this "NetPacket::" object is encaulated.  This
           field is undefined if there is no parent object.

       _frame
           A copy of the raw data of the packet.

       data
           This field should contain the data encapsulated in the packet (i.e any headers or  trailers  stripped
           off)  or  undef  if  the  packet  contains no data.  Note that in this sense, "data" is taken to mean
           information not relevant to the particular protocol  being  decoded.   For  example,  an  ARP  packet
           contains  many  header  fields  but  no  data.   A UDP datagram, however contains header fields and a
           payload.

SEE ALSO

       Joel    Knight    has    a    patch    for    NetPacket     for     IPv6     support     available     at
       http://www.packetmischief.ca/code/netpacket/.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright (c) 2001 Tim Potter and Stephanie Wehner.

       Copyright  (c)  1995,1996,1997,1998,1999  ANU  and  CSIRO  on  behalf  of the participants in the CRC for
       Advanced Computational Systems ('ACSys').

       This module is free software.  You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of  the  Artistic
       License 2.0.

       This  program  is  distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even
       the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

AUTHORS

       Tim Potter <tpot@samba.org>

       Stephanie Wehner <atrak@itsx.com>

       Yanick Champoux <yanick@cpan.org>

perl v5.36.0                                       2022-11-19                                     NetPacket(3pm)