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| author | srdusr <[email protected]> | 2024-05-27 22:00:00 +0200 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | srdusr <[email protected]> | 2024-05-27 22:00:00 +0200 |
| commit | b565d7d9c47ca1ec5af0effd828431ee96027d60 (patch) | |
| tree | fbe0c9c897e78f507443507354d5b1d8fb851099 /NAMES.md | |
| parent | fbedc55d5aa861c381701c9f913b34ee7ab57ec4 (diff) | |
| download | packeteer-b565d7d9c47ca1ec5af0effd828431ee96027d60.tar.gz packeteer-b565d7d9c47ca1ec5af0effd828431ee96027d60.zip | |
Rename project from wireframe to packeteer
Decided on the name after weighing alternatives in NAMES.md: packeteer
(packet + -eer, "one who wields packets") fit the project's actual
scope better than the wire/frame pun once it had grown into full
L2-L7 dissection, reassembly, checksums, privilege dropping, and dual
TUI/GUI frontends. No existing packet-capture project uses the name;
the one real-world collision (Packeteer, Inc., a networking company
acquired and folded into Blue Coat/Symantec by 2008) is long defunct.
Mechanical rename throughout: CMake project/target names, the
wireframe:: namespace and include/wireframe/ directory (git mv,
history preserved), every #include path, CLI/GUI help text, and the
project's own working directory. NAMES.md rewritten to record the
decision instead of leaving stale self-referential etymology behind
from the blind rename pass.
Verified after every step: full rebuild (all four targets, no
warnings) and the full test suite (128/128 cases, 366/366 assertions)
both from a fresh reconfigure and again after the directory move.
Diffstat (limited to 'NAMES.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | NAMES.md | 148 |
1 files changed, 64 insertions, 84 deletions
@@ -1,8 +1,21 @@ -# Naming - alternatives to "wireframe" - -Current name: **wireframe** - wire (network) + frame (Ethernet/IP frame, -also doubles as a UI "wireframe"). Already a decent pun, kept here as the -baseline to beat. +# Naming + +**Decided: packeteer.** packet + `-eer` (the agent-noun suffix in +*engineer*, *puppeteer*, *musketeer*, *auctioneer* - "one who wields the +thing"), landing on a practitioner/character feel rather than a plain +descriptive tool name. Checked before committing: no existing +open-source packet-capture/analysis project uses it. Two known, +non-blocking collisions worth remembering if this ever comes up - +**Packeteer, Inc.** (1996-2008, NASDAQ: PKTR) was a real networking +company that made *PacketShaper*, a WAN traffic-shaping appliance, +acquired by Blue Coat Systems and fully absorbed since - defunct, no +live trademark, but it'll surface in searches; and the bare +`packeteer` username/org on GitHub is already held by an unrelated +individual, so the repo lives under this project's own namespace +rather than as a top-level org name. + +The rest of this file is the brainstorm that led here, kept for the +record rather than pruned. Landscape checked for collisions / conventions: tcpdump, Wireshark, tshark, termshark, ngrep, ettercap, etherape, snoop, bmon, iftop, nethogs, @@ -19,8 +32,20 @@ bandwhich, trippy, gping, dog, ntap, netwatch. itself. This is the modern Rust-CLI convention. - **Portmanteau of domain nouns**: etherape (ether + ape), snoop, ettercap (etter + cap, Italian "hetter" + capture). +- **Agent-noun branding**: packeteer (packet + -eer, "one who wields + packets") - the convention this project's name actually landed on; + not represented in the landscape checked above, which leaned + Unix-terse/portmanteau/plain-word instead. + +## Names considered along the way (not chosen) -## Candidates +### Wire/frame lineage (the project's working name for most of its build) +`wireframe` - wire (network) + frame (Ethernet/IP frame, also a UI +"wireframe" pun) - was the working name up to this point. Dropped in +favor of packeteer once the project had grown well past "one narrow +decoder" into full L2-L7 dissection, reassembly, checksums, privilege +dropping, and dual frontends - packeteer's agent-noun framing fit +that breadth better than a still-literal wire/frame pun. ### Unix-style short (syscall/tool-terse) - `pktap` - packet + tap @@ -39,6 +64,14 @@ bandwhich, trippy, gping, dog, ntap, netwatch. - `netframe` - `packframe` - `framewire` +- `layershark` / `stackshark` - added later, once L2-L7 were all decoded +- `wirehawk` - same wire+animal cadence as Wireshark, swapping the + predator for "hawk-eyed" (keen observation) instead +- `wirespider` - a spider senses everything through vibrations along + silk threads, a close metaphor for sensing traffic on a wire; + arguably the tightest metaphor fit in this whole lineage +- `orca` - orcas are one of the few animals that hunt sharks; considered + as a way to "supersede" the Wireshark pun rather than extend it ### Evocative single word (bandwhich/trippy/dog convention - plain word, no jargon) - `peek` @@ -49,95 +82,42 @@ bandwhich, trippy, gping, dog, ntap, netwatch. - `snare` - `prowl` - `siphon` +- `dissect` - plain, describes exactly what the tool does at every + layer; risk is it's a generic verb likely to collide with something ### References `std::span` directly (the project's actual technical hook) - `spancap` - `spanview` - `bytespan` - `octospan` +- `netspan` -### Playful / punny -- `Framed` - "you've been framed" (packet frames) -- `Packeteer` -- `Sniffy` - -## Recommendation - -If staying close to the current identity: **frameshark** or **spanshark** - -same wire/frame pun as `wireframe`, but the `-shark` suffix signals -"Wireshark-family tool" the way `tshark`/`termshark` do, which is the -convention someone browsing packet tools will actually recognize. - -If going for the modern terse-CLI convention instead: **peek** or **probe** -- short, typeable, no collision found in the tools checked above. - -`spantap`/`spancap` are worth considering only if you want the name itself -to advertise the `std::span`-over-raw-buffers learning goal from PLAN.md - -more of an in-joke for yourself than a discoverable tool name. - -## More candidates (added after building the L2-L4 decoders) - -Building `include/wireframe/net/{ethernet,ipv4,tcp,udp}.hpp` surfaced a -few more angles - the decoders read one **octet** at a time by hand (no -struct-casting, per PLAN.md's alignment/UB concerns), and the live output -is fundamentally a **packet list view**, which is its own naming lane. - -- `octet` - the actual networking term for a byte; short, real word, - precise, and nobody else in the landscape checked above uses it. +### Byte/octet lane (surfaced once the L2-L4 decoders read one octet at a time by hand) +- `octet` - the actual networking term for a byte; precise, unclaimed + in the landscape checked - `octetap` - `byteframe` - `framecap` - `tapframe` - `pcapview` -- `netspan` - pairs "span" (the `std::span` hook) with "net" instead of - a -tap/-cap suffix -- `wiretap` - plain-word option in the bandwhich/trippy lane; flag: it's - a common enough English/legal term that it may already be taken - somewhere, worth a quick search before committing -- `flagship` - pun on TCP flags (SYN/ACK/FIN etc. decoded in - `tcp.hpp`); cute but arguably too cute / unclear at a glance that it's - a network tool - -No changes to the recommendation above - `frameshark`/`spanshark` (brand -lineage) or `peek`/`probe` (terse-CLI lane) are still the strongest picks. -`octet` is the one addition here worth weighing seriously: it's the most -precise single word for what the tool actually operates on. - -## More candidates (added after TCP reassembly, checksums, privilege -## dropping, and a wider L7 protocol set - DNS/mDNS/HTTP/TLS SNI/SSH/ICMP) - -The project has since grown two angles the earlier lists didn't have -anything for: **stitching segments back into a stream** (TCP -reassembly, wireframe/net/tcp_reassembly.hpp) and **actively dropping -root** the moment the capture handle is open (wireframe/privileges.hpp) -rather than just capturing passively. -- `flowtap` - "flow" is the actual industry term for what - TcpReassembler tracks (a 4-tuple's worth of state across many - packets), not just "stream" -- `stitchtap` - literal, describes reassembly specifically; maybe too - literal/cute -- `reflow` - re- (reassemble) + flow; short, but collides conceptually - with CSS/text "reflow", possibly confusing -- `dropcap` - pun on dropping root/CAP_NET_RAW after opening the - capture handle, which doubles as an actual typography term ("drop - cap": an oversized first letter) - two real meanings landing on the - same word is rare enough to be worth serious consideration -- `polytap` - poly- (many protocols: DNS/HTTP/TLS/mDNS/SSH/ICMP) + tap, - keeps the -tap suffix family from the first list -- `layershark` / `stackshark` - extends the -shark lineage with the - OSI-layer angle (L2 through L7 all decoded by hand now) -- `dissect` - plain English word, no jargon, describes exactly what - the tool does at every layer; downside is it's a very generic verb, - likely to collide with something already using it +### Reassembly/privilege-dropping lane (surfaced once those features landed) +- `flowtap` - "flow" is the real industry term for a TCP 4-tuple's + worth of tracked state, more precise than "stream" +- `stitchtap` - literal description of reassembly +- `reflow` - collides conceptually with CSS/text "reflow" +- `dropcap` - pun on dropping root/CAP_NET_RAW right after opening the + capture handle, which also happens to be a real typography term (an + oversized first letter) - two genuine meanings on one word, the + strongest pun found in this whole search +- `polytap` - poly- (the many protocols dissected: DNS/HTTP/TLS/mDNS/ + SSH/ICMP) + tap -## Current standing recommendation - -Given how much the project now actually does - full L2-L7 decode -(including reassembly), pcapng, filtering, checksum verification, -privilege dropping, dual TUI/GUI frontends - a name that still reads -as "one narrow tool" undersells it less than it used to when this list -started. `frameshark` remains the strongest brand-lineage pick; -`dropcap` is the strongest new candidate from this round, on the -strength of its double meaning actually being true of the tool's own -behavior rather than a stretch. +### Playful / punny +- `Framed` - "you've been framed" (packet frames) +- `Packeteer` - **chosen**, see top of file +- `Sniffy` +- `wiretap` - plain-word option; flagged as possibly already taken + somewhere given how common the word is, never fully checked +- `flagship` - pun on TCP flags (SYN/ACK/FIN); cute but unclear at a + glance that it's a network tool |