Re: snmpget and snmpwalk return corrupt string instead of hex string when MAC address starts with non zero

[Fulko H. <ful...@gm...>]

On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 3:15 PM, Randall C Grimshaw <rgr...@sy...>wrote:

> No luck in forcing the IP-MIB.
> I guess I do not understand the DISPLAY-HINT association. The type is
> clearly defined in the MIB files and do not know why it would not be
> considered a bug that a MAC address that does not start with 00:xx:xx does
> not display properly.
>

Putting on my 'lawyer' hat while reading and interpreting specifications...

The MIB (aka 'the specification') declares the variable as an 'OCTET
STRING'.
That means it is "a string of 8 bit quantities that contains 'something'".
That 'something' could be anywhere from a human readable printable string in
English
all the way to 'binary crap'.  It is the (informal) DISPLAY-HINT that, if
used, allows that
OCTET STRING to be (optionally aka 'hint') interpreted and displayed in a
more
intuitive/human manner.
(ie. the 6 bytes are intended to represent a 'MAC address' and could/should
be
displayed in the form 'xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx'.)

BTW.  I don't think there is anything 'magic' about the first octet in a MAC
address.

Fulko