Nmap Development mailing list archives
Re: [PATCH] Add --dtd and --webdtd for <!DOCTYPE ...> with -oX
From: Kris Katterjohn <katterjohn () gmail com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 15:40:23 -0600
William McVey wrote:
On Tue, 2007-01-23 at 11:48 -0600, Kris Katterjohn wrote:I'm not trying to be rude, but I just don't get what you're saying. If a user messes with it, they are *messing* with it. I don't think keeping this option out of Nmap just because somebody might screw it up, by their own choice, is a good idea.Well, my thought is that the criteria shouldn't be whether the option should be kept out of nmap or not, but whether it really needs to be added in the first place. There are certainly more canonical ways in the XML world to tweak a document declaration (an xsl transform utilizing the doctype-system attribute on xsl:output being the most "standard"). In fact, I can think of no other tool in any field that provides the capability to override the document declaration to the end user (perhaps an HTML editor that allows you choose the varient of XHTML you want to use, but that's not changing the SYSTEM URI spec, that's just choosing among a set of pre-canned document varients. I mean, when was the time you were given the option of where the DTD for a XML language is located? It's certainly not something the "big" xml generators support. As I mentioned in my original mesg, I'm not dead set against the --dtd option (even if I were, it's not my decision), but I'm also not sold on the necessity for nmap to support producing a doctype beyond the canonical "official" declaration that should be the default in the first place.Of course, I'm not a big XML person and I don't use -oX very often, and if I do it's only to view it in a browser real quick. So I'm really just throwing my 2 cents in :)Debating declarations is very much a minutia detail. The main argument against having a commandline option for setting up a custom declaration is that it's just not needed and nmap really isn't running short of options as it is. The main reason for it seems to allow someone to do something they can already do using more standard facilities available in XML. My main point though is that I think the webdtd option should be axed in favor of changing the default behavior and I feel that the "official" URI for the SYSTEM specifier on insecure.org should accommodate a version string so that the XML output format can evolve without overnight invalidating thousands of XML documents around the world. -- William
Okay, that's all cool. Like I said, I don't use it very often. I was replying to him initially because I like to get responses from others, and I figure I can't want and not give. I'm not arguing for or against it, I just wanted to now more about what you meant. So thanks for elaborating :) -Kris _______________________________________________ Sent through the nmap-dev mailing list http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev Archived at http://SecLists.Org
Current thread:
- [PATCH] Add --dtd and --webdtd for <!DOCTYPE ...> with -oX Brandon Enright (Jan 22)
- Re: [PATCH] Add --dtd and --webdtd for <!DOCTYPE ...> with -oX Kris Katterjohn (Jan 23)
- Re: [PATCH] Add --dtd and --webdtd for <!DOCTYPE ...> with -oX William McVey (Jan 23)
- Re: [PATCH] Add --dtd and --webdtd for <!DOCTYPE ...> with -oX Kris Katterjohn (Jan 23)
- Re: [PATCH] Add --dtd and --webdtd for <!DOCTYPE ...> with -oX William McVey (Jan 23)
- Re: [PATCH] Add --dtd and --webdtd for <!DOCTYPE ...> with -oX Kris Katterjohn (Jan 23)
- Re: [PATCH] Add --dtd and --webdtd for <!DOCTYPE ...> with -oX Kris Katterjohn (Jan 23)