Is there an option not to display units in custom columns?

asked 2020-11-14 01:58:56 +0000

updated 2020-11-14 03:30:30 +0000

Guy Harris
19890 ●3 ●659 ●207

I use WS with the Nordic BLE sniffer interface. I just updated to WS 3.4.0 and discovered that units of "us" are now displayed on every line of the WS real time log for the "Delta Time" column (they weren't displayed previously). I find this very distracting when I'm watching for the TIF intervals of 150 us (they were easy to spot when just displayed as 150). It would probably not be as bad if there were a space between the number and the unit designator but Is there a way that I can turn off the units display?

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I created a column, with the title "Delta time" and the column type "Delta time"; I'm seeing the time displayed in seconds and fractions of a second, not as sub-second units, with or without an indication of the units in question; selecting "Delta time displayed" as the time doesn't change things.

How did you set up that column?

Guy Harris ( 2020-11-14 02:51:39 +0000 )edit

It's a Nordic BLE timestamp:
https://infocenter.nordicsemi.com/top...
Screenshot showing old format

Chuckc ( 2020-11-14 03:15:05 +0000 )edit

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answered 2020-11-14 03:12:54 +0000

Chuckc
3023 ●6 ●608 ●20

Field: nordic_ble.delta_time

Looks like units (us) were added in this change (Gitlab commit: f5622e81 )

Sample capture for testing (60719-04_BLE_sensor_and_CGW_prefix_added_exp_pdu.pcapng: Exported PDU trace) attached to this issue

Prior to the change, the symbol was displayed in the column title?

Before:
    { &hf_nordic_ble_delta_time,
        { "Delta time (" UTF8_MICRO_SIGN "s end to start)", "nordic_ble.delta_time",
            FT_UINT32, BASE_DEC, NULL, 0x0,
            UTF8_MICRO_SIGN "s since end of last reported packet", HFILL }
    },

After:
    { &hf_nordic_ble_delta_time,
        { "Delta time (end to start)", "nordic_ble.delta_time",
            FT_UINT32, BASE_DEC | BASE_UNIT_STRING, &units_microseconds, 0x0,
            "Time since end of last reported packet", HFILL }
    },

I'm not sure if the best answer is to revert or to add another field without units.
Enhancement/change requests are done through Gitlab issues

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The best answer may be to allow configuration of the format of custom columns - for example:

if it's a column with a value-to-string mapping, have a choice of displaying the string (or the number if no string is found), displaying the value, or displaying both;
if it's a column with units, have a choice of displaying the value with or without units;
if it's an address, have a choice of displaying the value or the name it resolves to (or the value if it doesn't resolve to a name);

etc..

The packet details can show both the raw value and the resolved value, or the raw value and the units, because there's more space in a row in the packet details pane, but the packet summary is limited by the width of the entire row.

In addition, as the person asking the question shows, additional ...(more)

Guy Harris ( 2020-11-14 03:30:05 +0000 )edit

Prior to the change, the symbol was displayed in the column title?

No, it was displayed as part of the "blurb" for the field; I think that's displayed in the status line if you select the field in the packet details pane.

Guy Harris ( 2020-11-14 03:33:23 +0000 )edit

The "Before" and "After" snippet provided in the answer from Chuckc, which came from Gitlab commit f5622e81, looks to be from the file "packet-nordic_ble.c". Is this a file used in the compilation of Wireshark? It can't be a file used in the compilation of the Nordic sniffer firmware because I didn't change the firmware on the sniffer device when I noticed the units had been added to the latest Wireshark version display. And I was using the same "extcap" files as before that I added to the Wireshark extcap folder. The only changes I made, when I noticed the units had been added, were to update to the latest Wireshark and Python versions.

Randy

Stroker347 ( 2020-11-30 14:52:23 +0000 )edit

I submitted a new "Answer" that I now think should have been posted here as a comment because it contains a new question in response to someone else's answer. Since I'm not sure which way will get it seen by the people who previously answered my original question, I'll include it here as well. The text is as follows: The "Before" and "After" snippet provided in the answer from Chuckc, which came from Gitlab commit f5622e81, looks to be from the file "packet-nordic_ble.c". Is this a file used in the compilation of Wireshark? It can't be a file used in the compilation of the Nordic sniffer firmware because I didn't change the firmware on the sniffer device when I noticed the units had been added to the latest Wireshark version display. And I was using the same "extcap" files as before that I added ...(more)

Stroker347 ( 2020-11-30 15:01:59 +0000 )edit

... "packet-nordic_ble.c". Is this a file used in the compilation of Wireshark?

Yes, it's the file containing the code that shows the contents of the metadata pseudo-header for packets in pcap and pcapng capture files using the link-layer type using that pseudo-header.

Guy Harris ( 2020-11-30 18:30:40 +0000 )edit

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Is there an option not to display units in custom columns?

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Is there an option not to display units in custom columns?