===============================================================================

TOPIC:      capture

ABSTRACT:   this file describes how the capture process works within ettercap

NOTE:       when in bridged sniffing, two threads are spawned, one for each
            network interface.
            
===============================================================================


 Here is represented in Very-High-Level-Language the capture thread behavior:


   loop {
      
      receives a single packet from the pcap callback

      updates the packet statistics

      dump the packet to a file (if the user has requested it)
   
      if (truncated) continue;
         
      creates the packet object

      determine the interface where the packet was captured
   
      HOOK POINT: HOOK_RECEIVED  

      starts the protocol decoding
         -> the packet is decoded by decoder and the po is filled
            -> the ip and tcp sessions are created

         -> the middle layer is called (only if TCP or UDP)
            -> if (PO_DONT_DISSECT) return;
            -> set the PO_IGNORE according to the visualization filters
            -> HOOK POINT: HOOK_HANDLED
            -> if (PO_IGNORE) return;
            -> execute the dissectors
            -> HOOK POINT: HOOK_DECODED
            -> execute the filtering engine
            -> HOOK POINT: HOOK_FILTER
            -> a copy of the packet is added to the top_half queue
   
      if (PO_FORWARDABLE) {
         HOOK POINT: HOOK_PRE_FORWARD
         forward the packet to the real host (the victim)
      }
     
      destroy the packet object
      
   }

 Top_half thread behavior:

   loop {
      
      extract a packet from the top_half queue

      HOOK POINT: HOOK_DISPATCHER

      destroy the packet
   }

EOF
