Re: NSE structured output--normal output formatting

[Patrick Donnelly <batrick () batbytes com>]

On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 6:49 PM, David Fifield <david () bamsoftware com> wrote:
> We have discussed how scripts should be able to return a table with nice
> structured semantic fields, and also the need to provide less robotic
> output for humans reading -oN.
>
> We've discussed some possible options for producing normal output. These
> include
> * requiring the script to give to NSE a function that converts its
>   output table to a string,
> * requiring the script to annotate its returned table with metadata that
>   describe how the table should be converted to a string, and
> * returning a string along with the table.
>
> I want to strongly suggest that we adopt the technique of just returning
> string alongside the table. These are the benefits I see to this approach:
>
> * Lower complexity.
> * Every existing script is already capable of producing such a string.
> * Lower complexity.
> * Scripts know their own verbosity and already tailor their output for it.
> * Lower complexity.
>
> Old scripts that don't understand structured output will do
>
>         return my_output_string
>
> New scripts that don't need any fancy formatting will do
>
>         return my_output_table
>
> Scripts that need to control their normal output will do
>
>         return my_output_table, my_output_string
>
> What say you?

I think ScriptOutput tables (objects) would be the "future", having a
__tostring metamethod or some method for changing the table to a
string for normal output. I don't see the value in having scripts
continue to make a string version of their output alongside the table
version.

-- 
- Patrick Donnelly
_______________________________________________
Sent through the nmap-dev mailing list
http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev
Archived at http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/