The Tcpdump Group git mirrors - tcpdump/blob - doc/README.Win32.md

   1 Building tcpdump on Windows with Visual Studio
   2 ==============================================
   3
   4 Unlike the UN*Xes on which libpcap can capture network traffic, Windows
   5 has no network traffic capture mechanism that libpcap can use.
   6 Therefore, libpcap requires a driver, and a library to access the
   7 driver, provided by the Npcap or WinPcap projects.
   8
   9 Those projects include versions of libpcap built to use that driver and
  10 library; these instructions are for people who want to build libpcap
  11 source releases, or libpcap from the Git repository, as a replacement
  12 for the version provided with Npcap or WinPcap.
  13
  14 Npcap and WinPcap SDK
  15 ---------------------
  16
  17 In order to build tcpdump, you will need to download Npcap and its
  18 software development kit (SDK) or WinPcap and its software development
  19 kit.
  20
  21 Npcap is currently being developed and maintained, and offers many
  22 additional capabilities that WinPcap does not.
  23
  24 WinPcap is no longer being developed or maintained; it should be used
  25 only if there is some other requirement to use it rather than Npcap,
  26 such as a requirement to support versions of Windows earlier than
  27 Windows Vista, which is the earliest version supported by Npcap.
  28
  29 Npcap and its SDK can be downloaded from its home page:
  30
  31   https://npcap.org
  32
  33 The SDK is a ZIP archive; create a folder on your C: drive, e.g.
  34 C:\npcap-sdk, and put the contents of the ZIP archive into that folder.
  35
  36 The WinPcap installer can be downloaded from
  37
  38   https://www.winpcap.org/install/default.htm
  39
  40 and the WinPcap Developer's Kit can be downloaded from
  41
  42   https://www.winpcap.org/devel.htm
  43
  44 Required build tools
  45 --------------------
  46
  47 The Developer's Kit is a ZIP archive; it contains a folder named
  48 WpdPack, which you should place on your C: drive, e.g. C:\WpdPack.
  49
  50 Building tcpdumpp on Windows requires Visual Studio 2015 or later.  The
  51 Community Edition of Visual Studio can be downloaded at no cost from
  52
  53   https://visualstudio.microsoft.com
  54
  55 Additional tools are also required.  Chocolatey is a package manager for
  56 Windows with which those tools, and other tools, can be installed; it
  57 can be downloaded from
  58
  59   https://chocolatey.org
  60
  61 It is a command-line tool; a GUI tool, Chocolatey GUI, is provided as a
  62 Chocolatey package, which can be installed from the command line:
  63
  64         choco install chocolateygui
  65
  66 For convenience, the "choco install" command can be run with the "-y"
  67 flag, forcing it to automatically answer all questions asked of the user
  68 with "yes":
  69
  70         choco install -y chocolateygui
  71
  72 The required tools are:
  73
  74 ### CMake ###
  75
  76 libpcap does not provide supported project files for Visual Studio
  77 (there are currently unsupported project files provided, but we do not
  78 guarantee that they will work or that we will continue to provide them).
  79 It does provide files for CMake, which is a cross-platform tool that
  80 runs on UN*Xes and on Windows and that can generate project files for
  81 UN*X Make, the Ninja build system, and Visual Studio, among other build
  82 systems.
  83
  84 Visual Studio 2015 does not provide CMake; an installer can be
  85 downloaded from
  86
  87   https://cmake.org/download/
  88
  89 When you run the installer, you should choose to add CMake to the system
  90 PATH for all users and to create the desktop icon.
  91
  92 CMake can also be installed as the Chocolatey package "cmake":
  93
  94         choco install -y cmake
  95
  96 Visual Studio 2017 and later provide CMake, so you will not need to
  97 install CMake if you have installed Visual Studio 2017 or later.  They
  98 include built-in support for CMake-based projects:
  99
 100   https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/cmake-support-in-visual-studio/
 101
 102 For Visual Studio 2017, make sure "Visual C++ tools for CMake" is
 103 installed; for Visual Studio 2019, make sure "C++ CMake tools for
 104 Windows" is intalled.
 105
 106 Git
 107 ---
 108
 109 An optional tool, required only if you will be building from a Git
 110 repository rather than from a release source tarball, is Git.  Git is
 111 provided as an optional installation component, "Git for Windows", with
 112 Visual Studio 2017 and later.
 113
 114 Building from the Visual Studio GUI
 115 -----------------------------------
 116
 117 ### Visual Studio 2017 ###
 118
 119 Open the folder containing the libpcap source with Open > Folder.
 120 Visual Studio will run CMake; however, you will need to indicate where
 121 the Npcap or WinPcap SDK is installed.
 122
 123 To do this, go to Project > "Change CMake Settings" > tcpdump and:
 124
 125 Choose which configuration type to build, if you don't want the default
 126 Debug build.
 127
 128 In the CMakeSettings.json tab, change cmakeCommandArgs to include
 129
 130         -DPacket_ROOT={path-to-sdk}
 131
 132 where {path-to-sdk} is the path of the directory containing the Npcap or
 133 WinPcap SDK.  Note that backslashes in the path must be specified as two
 134 backslashes.
 135
 136 Save the configuration changes with File > "Save CMakeSettings.json" or
 137 with control-S.
 138
 139 Visual Studio will then re-run CMake.  If that completes without errors,
 140 you can build with CMake > "Build All".
 141
 142 ### Visual Studio 2019 ###
 143
 144 Open the folder containing the libpcap source with Open > Folder.
 145 Visual Studio will run CMake; however, you will need to indicate where
 146 the Npcap or WinPcap SDK is installed.
 147
 148 To do this, go to Project > "CMake Settings for tcpdump" and:
 149
 150 Choose which configuration type to build, if you don't want the default
 151 Debug build.
 152
 153 Scroll down to "Cmake variables and cache", scroll through the list
 154 looking for the entry for Packet_ROOT, and either type in the path of
 155 the directory containing the Npcap or WinPcap SDK or use the "Browse..."
 156 button to browse for that directory.
 157
 158 Save the configuration changes with File > "Save CMakeSettings.json" or
 159 with control-S.
 160
 161 Visual Studio will then re-run CMake.  If that completes without errors,
 162 you can build with Build > "Build All".
 163
 164 Building from the command line
 165 ------------------------------
 166
 167 Start the appropriate Native Tools command line prompt.
 168
 169 Change to the directory into which you want to build tcpdump, possibly
 170 after creating it first.  One choice is to create it as a subdirectory
 171 of the tcpdump source directory.
 172
 173 Run the command
 174
 175         cmake "-DPacket_ROOT={path-to-sdk}" {path-to-tcpdump-source}
 176
 177 where {path-to-sdk} is the path of the directory containing the Npcap or
 178 WinPcap SDK and {path-to-tcpdump-source} is the pathname of the
 179 top-level source directory for tcpdump.
 180
 181 Run the command
 182
 183         msbuild/m tcpdump.sln
 184
 185 to compile tcpdump.