Unpack the source from its gzip'd tar file. If you are using Linux, or your version of UNIX uses GNU tar, you can use the following command:

tar zxvf wireshark-1.4-tar.gz
	    

For other versions of UNIX, you will want to use the following commands:

gzip -d wireshark-1.4-tar.gz
tar xvf wireshark-1.4-tar
	    

	Note!
	The pipeline gzip -dc wireshark-1.4-tar.gz | tar xvf - will work here as well.

	Note!
	If you have downloaded the Wireshark tarball under Windows, you may find that your browser has created a file with underscores rather than periods in its file name.

Change directory to the Wireshark source directory.

Configure your source so it will build correctly for your version of UNIX. You can do this with the following command:

./configure
	    

If this step fails, you will have to rectify the problems and rerun configure. Troubleshooting hints are provided in Section 2.6, “Troubleshooting during the install on Unix”.

Build the sources into a binary, with the make command. For example:

make
	    

Install the software in its final destination, using the command:

make install