Nmap Development mailing list archives
Re: Hard-coded xmloutputversion in nmap.dtd--remove it?
From: Kris Katterjohn <katterjohn () gmail com>
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:17:46 -0500
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 David Fifield wrote:
Hello, Fyodor, Michael Pattrick, and I had a discussion about how to handle changes to the Nmap DTD. There is a version number, xmloutputversion, that is supposed to allow parsers to cope with different versions of Nmap XML output. http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/2007/q4/0368.html Currently the xmloutputversion is hard-coded in nmap.dtd to be 1.02. However that means if we ever change it, all the existing Nmap XML files with xmloutputversion="1.02" will technically cease to be valid. I am in favor of removing the hard-coded version number and replacing it with an attribute whose value can be either arbitrary CDATA or one of a list of alternatives (1.00|1.01| 1.02) that can be updated. I want to check with everyone before I do that because in the past I have thought I knew more about XML than I really did: http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/2007/q4/0649.html Finally, what does every use xmloutputversion for? I notice that the parser in Zenmap never uses it. Is validity (in an XML sense) important to your application? Zenmap's USR files are remarkably invalid yet they get the point across. It could be that xmloutputversion isn't worth much fuss.
I personally don't use it for anything and don't particularly care what format the version number is available in either way. I use XML output for mainly two things: saving it for future use since it's a good format, and parsing with my Ruby Nmap::Parser. The only thing my parser uses the XML version information for is to pass to a user if they so desire, it doesn't use it for any validation or checking. So while my answer to this is pretty much "meh", I think that's a good enough answer for an opinion on this matter since it means there's no fuss :) Of course this does mean I'll need to update my library again for another change...
David Fifield
Thanks, Kris Katterjohn -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iQIVAwUBSKW6N/9K37xXYl36AQIOpA//RwrL0YxMgByVrdZQ+Q5HG3OHi3OvSSsu Uze/vCF+9nOg4TW93UWo2YGFeRtvFBFbOUdkBAJlZ1Ini+56YoCWrpef6SKmip+7 i93PRpG+jb6Xh8ESeLzHhrVpcWWXK/z2UUIEm1EVNmo17j7ZFq9gJxmrFSmeOYWL Q0rDZLUIDSV5V0vww6PkGvOv3kerDUQF21atNHvJ0e/MPNiwJ2TrrsukrPeMOO8d rg6rktoINdJ8DmLGGZkWy82wbfd99SM4Jog/87VctrTeq+vecO6erqGuP528jvvJ HMoNZf6Ien4bkMIf/2eKxb7Mer/ywoDrFXYWpA4NJ4M58JvuQZwulh6wAbP6CLcZ sZxt16Vh3NrjlLkVybEBEQB2Su2BW/qdhsrgiLJFWYw5fwGT7Wy0Mwn2JyQjrYQY U199NjCitmIHc9+URYux3CjUSC7/re/1xv4H3j06l5n1MLn2kVf0v+b00vj8TWIb Ot9oEQE1E2qe5nUApOLGY4hKA8JlRhajmeW/wWH1GxYGd0eyNPC3Bia2rtycnJCf 39sA1+/5385ZLAEYnWZz+H4eheqU4dgcSszSoJXZw1m7v3kCP+H8+SQvLt0VjYjo ENe2vxcL5VsFdBM2jAWO1EMIhJPbew1OXwIRbuN6zHoVIK8961oJwNhzn/YrFnXo 8NjkmKVqdmg= =RP1e -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Sent through the nmap-dev mailing list http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev Archived at http://SecLists.Org
Current thread:
- Hard-coded xmloutputversion in nmap.dtd--remove it? David Fifield (Aug 15)
- Re: Hard-coded xmloutputversion in nmap.dtd--remove it? Kris Katterjohn (Aug 15)
- Re: Hard-coded xmloutputversion in nmap.dtd--remove it? David Fifield (Aug 15)
- Re: Hard-coded xmloutputversion in nmap.dtd--remove it? Kris Katterjohn (Aug 15)
- Re: Hard-coded xmloutputversion in nmap.dtd--remove it? David Fifield (Aug 15)
- Re: Hard-coded xmloutputversion in nmap.dtd--remove it? Michael Pattrick (Aug 15)
- Re: Hard-coded xmloutputversion in nmap.dtd--remove it? Kris Katterjohn (Aug 15)