User guide

1.5. Releases and distributions

The officially released files can be found at: http://www.wireshark.org/download/. A new Wireshark

version is released after significant changes compared to the last release are completed or a serious

security issue is encountered. The typical release schedule is about every 4-8 weeks (although this

may vary).

There are two kinds of distributions: binary and source; both have their advantages and disadvant-

ages.

1.5.1. Binary distributions

Binary distributions are usually easy to install (as simply starting the appropriate file is usually the

only thing to do). They are available for the following systems:

• Win32 (.exe file). The typical Windows end user method is used to get a setup.exe file which

will install all the required things for him.

• Win32 U3 (.u3 file). Special distribution for U3 capable USB memory sticks.

• Debian (.deb file). A user of a Debian Package Manager (DPKG) based system obtains a .deb

file from which the package manager checks the dependencies and installs the software.

• Red Hat (.rpm file). A user of a Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) based system obtains an .rpm

file from which the package manager checks the dependencies and installs the software.

• Solaris. A Solaris user obtains a file from which the package manager (PKG) checks the depend-

encies and installs the software.

However, if you want to start developing with Wireshark, the binary distributions won't be too help-

ful, as you need the source files, of course.

For details about how to build these binary distributions yourself, e.g. if you need a distribution for a

special audience, see Section 3.12, “Binary packaging”.

1.5.2. Source code distributions

It's still common for UNIX developers to give the end user a source tarball and let the user compile

it on their target machine (configure, make, make install). However, for different UNIX (Linux) dis-

tributions it's becoming more common to release binary packages (e.g. .deb or .rpm files) these

days.

You should use the released sources if you want to build Wireshark from source on your platform

for productive use. However, if you going to develop changes to the Wireshark sources, it might be

better to use the latest SVN sources. For details about the different ways to get the Wireshark source

code see Section 3.3, “Obtain the Wireshark sources”.

Before building Wireshark from a source distribution, make sure you have all the tools and libraries

required to build. The following chapters will describe the required tools and libraries in detail.

Introduction