User guide

3.12. Binary packaging

Delivering binary packages, makes it much easier for the end-users to install Wireshark on their tar-

get system. This section will explain how the binary packages are made.

3.12.1. Debian: .deb packages

The Debian Package is built using dpkg-buildpackage, based on information found in the source tree

under debian. See http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/336 for a more in-depth discus-

sion of the build process.

In the wireshark directory, type:

$ make debian-package

to build the Debian Package.

3.12.2. Red Hat: .rpm packages

The RPM is built using rpmbuild (http://www.rpm.org/), which comes as standard on many flavours

of Linux, including Red Hat and Fedora. The process creates a clean build environment in pack-

aging/rpm/BUILD every time the RPM is built. The settings controlling the build are in pack-

aging/rpm/SPECS/wireshark.spec.in. After editing the settings in this file,

./configure must be run again in the wireshark direcrory to generate the actual specification

script.

Warn!

The SPEC file contains settings for the configure used to set the RPM build envir-

onment. These are completely independent of any settings passed to the usual Wire-

shark ./configure.

In the wireshark directory, type:

$ make rpm-package

to build the RPM. Once it is done, there will be a message stating where the built RPM can be

found.

Tip!

Because this does a clean build, as well as constructing the package, this can take quite

a long time.

3.12.3. Win32: NSIS .exe installer

The "Nullsoft Install System" is a free installer generator for Win32 based systems; instructions how

to install it can be found in Section 4.17, “Win32: NSIS (optional)”. NSIS is script based, you will

find the Wireshark installer generation script at: packaging/nsis/wireshark.nsi.

You will probably have to modify the MAKENSIS setting in the config.nmake file to specify

where the NSIS binaries are installed.

In the wireshark directory, type:

> nmake -f makefile.nmake packaging

to build the installer.

Work with the Wireshark sources