3.8. Make changes to the Wireshark sources

3.8. Make changes to the Wireshark sources
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As the Wireshark developers are working on many different platforms, a lot of editors are used to develop Wireshark (emacs, vi, Microsoft Visual Studio and many many others). There's no "standard" or "default" development environment.

There are several reasons why you might want to change the Wireshark sources:

add your own new dissector
change/extend an existing dissector
fix a bug
implement a new glorious feature :-)

The internal structure of the Wireshark sources will be described in Part II, “Wireshark Development (incomplete)”.

Tip!

	Tip!
`Ask the developer mailing list before you really start a new development task.` If you have an idea what you want to add/change, it's a good idea to contact the developer mailing list (see Section 1.7.5, “Mailing Lists”) and explain your idea. Someone else might already be working on the same topic, so double effort can be reduced, or someone can give you some tips that should be thought about (like side effects that are sometimes very hard to see).

Ask the developer mailing list before you really start a new development task. If you have an idea what you want to add/change, it's a good idea to contact the developer mailing list (see Section 1.7.5, “Mailing Lists”) and explain your idea. Someone else might already be working on the same topic, so double effort can be reduced, or someone can give you some tips that should be thought about (like side effects that are sometimes very hard to see).

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3.7. Debug your generated Wireshark	Home	3.9. Contribute your changes