Re: Add XML support to NSE

[Duarte Silva <duartejcsilva () gmail com>]

Hi Patrick,

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 8:54 PM, Patrick Donnelly <batrick () batbytes com> wrote:
> Hi Duarte,
>
> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 5:28 PM, Duarte Silva <duartejcsilva () gmail com> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > The following set of patches add XML support to NSE by using Expat. To
> > make the code review easier I have broken the changes in three
> > separated files.
> >
> > nse-xml-libexpat.patch - Add all the Expat source/header library files
> > and the Visual Studio solution file
> > nse-xml-solchanges.patch - Changes to Visual Studio nmap.sln and
> > nmap.vcproj files
> > nse-xml-support.patch - Files that make the bridge between NSE and Expat
> >
> > Note that I only have made changes to the Windows build environment.
> > Because at the moment I don't have a way to test it in Linux.
> >
> > Dummy usage example follows.
> >
> > function startelement(parser, name, atts)
> >        print(name)
> >
> >        for key, value in pairs(atts) do
> >                print(key, value)
> >        end
> > end
> >
> > function endelement(parser, name)
> >        print(name)
> > end
> >
> > action = function(host, port)
> >        local callbacks = {
> >                start_element = startelement,
> >                end_element = endelement,
> >        }
> >
> >        local p = expat.new(callbacks)
> >        p:parse("<first><second property=\"test\"></second></first>")
> >        p:close()
> > end
>
> I wanted to apologize if came off ungrateful for your hard work on the
> binding you wrote for Expat. Thank you for trying to make NSE better!

Chill dude, no damage done :P

> I do think that we probably will try to avoid adding a C binding for
> an XML Parser. I apologize that you ended up putting so much work into
> your binding only to find out we probably wouldn't use it. I will look
> through your patch again; David and I may still decide to use it.

I totally agree with the point that adding another C static linked
library to nmap will only contribute to binary bloat, especially if
there is a viable *in* LUA alternative.

> If we decide to not use it, we will most likely (intend to) use LPeg
> for a parser. Perhaps you would like to polish one of the many LPeg
> XML parsers (most of them are proof-of-concept) for NSE's use. LPeg is
> very fun to work with after you get the hang of it (the home page has
> many instructive examples).

Will take a look at it :) and see what I can learn with it.

I just felt compelled to learn more about nmap and LUA and its
interface because I found the learning process quite interesting and
decided to make something that could actually in some remote
possibility do something useful.

> Thanks again for your hard work,
>
> --
> -Patrick Donnelly
>
> "Let all men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely
> ford that see the shallows."
>
> - Benjamin Franklin

Cheers,
Duarte

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