------ Original Message ------
From: "Roberto Peon" grmocg@gmail.com
> ยท SPDY compresses HTTP headers using an LZ history based
> algorithm, which means that previous bytes are used to compress
> subsequent bytes. So any packet capture that does not include all
> the traffic sent over that connection will be completely opaque --
> no mathematical way to decode the HTTP. Even with all the traffic, a
> stream decoder will be a tricky thing to build b/c packets depend on
> each other.
I know there's a SPDY decoder plugin for Wireshark, but I'll defer to
people more
knowledgeable about packet analysis tools to cover that area.
The OP is right about this, btw. Technically it is possible that
you've flushed the window after 2k of completely new data, but there
is no guarantee and so interpreting a stream in the middle may be
extremely difficult.
Seems like a fine tradeoff for the latency savings that we get on
low-BW links, though.
I think it basically means compression or any transport level transform
needs to be able to be switched off when debugging. Which means
optional/negotiated.
I have to analyse packet dumps of HTTP most days, as I'm sure do many
others on this list. We haven't yet evolved as a species to the stage
where we don't make mistakes.
I think it's a vitally important facility for discovering
implementation errors, which is required in many cases to resolve
issues.
Adrien