Chapter 4. Tool Reference

Table of Contents

4.1. Introduction
4.2. Win32: Cygwin
4.2.1. Add/Update/Remove Cygwin Packages
4.3. GNU compiler toolchain (UNIX or Win32 Cygwin)
4.3.1. gcc (GNU compiler collection)
4.3.2. gdb (GNU project debugger)
4.3.3. ddd (GNU Data Display Debugger)
4.3.4. make (GNU Make)
4.4. Microsoft compiler toolchain (Win32 native)
4.4.1. Toolchain Package Alternatives
4.4.2. Legal issues with MSVC > V6?
4.4.3. cl.exe (C Compiler)
4.4.4. nmake.exe (Make)
4.4.5. link.exe (Linker)
4.4.6. C-Runtime "Redistributable" files
4.4.7. Windows (Platform) SDK
4.4.8. HTML Help
4.4.9. Debugger
4.5. bash
4.5.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: GNU bash
4.5.2. Win32 native: -
4.6. python
4.6.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: python
4.6.2. Win32 native: python
4.7. perl
4.7.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: perl
4.7.2. Win32 native: perl
4.8. sed
4.8.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: sed
4.8.2. Win32 native: sed
4.9. yacc (bison)
4.9.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: bison
4.9.2. Win32 native: bison
4.10. flex
4.10.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: flex
4.10.2. Win32 native: flex
4.11. Subversion (SVN) client (optional)
4.11.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: svn
4.11.2. Win32 native: svn
4.12. Subversion (SVN) GUI client (optional)
4.12.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: rapidSVN, subcommander
4.12.2. Win32 native: TortoiseSVN
4.13. diff (optional)
4.13.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: GNU diff
4.13.2. Win32 native: diff
4.14. patch (optional)
4.14.1. UNIX or Win32 Cygwin: patch
4.14.2. Win32 native: patch
4.15. Win32: GNU wget (optional)
4.16. Win32: GNU unzip (optional)
4.17. Win32: NSIS (optional)

4.1. Introduction

This chapter will provide you with information about the various tools needed for Wireshark development.

None of the tools mentioned in this chapter are needed to run Wireshark; they are only needed to build it.

Most of these tools have their roots on UNIX like platforms, but Win32 ports are also available. Therefore the tools are available in different "flavours":

  • UNIX (or Win32 Cygwin): the tools should be commonly available on the supported UNIX platforms, and for Win32 platforms by using the Cygwin UNIX emulation

  • Win32 native: some tools are available as native Win32 tools, no special emulation is required

[Warning]Warning!

Unless you know exactly what you are doing, you should strictly follow the recommendations given in Chapter 2, Quick Setup!

The following sections give a very brief description of what a particular tool is doing, how it is used in the Wireshark project and how it can be installed and tested.

Don't expect a lot of documentation regarding these tools in this document. If you need further documentation of a specific tool, you should find lot's of useful information on the web, as these tools are commonly used. You can also try to get help for the UNIX based tools with toolname --help or read the manpage man toolname.

You will find explanations of the tool usage for some of the specific development tasks in Chapter 3, Work with the Wireshark sources.