// WSDG Chapter Libraries [#ChapterLibraries] == Library Reference [#ChLibIntro] === Introduction Like most applications, Wireshark depends on libraries provided by your operating system and by third parties, including the C runtime library, GLib, libpcap, and Qt. While running Wireshark only requires the libraries themselves, building it requires header files, import libraries, and related resources. Binary libraries are available in different formats and are specific to the target operating system, platform, and compiler. They can be compiled by hand, but are most often installed as pre-built packages. On most Linux systems, the required binary and development libraries can be installed using your package manager. We provide setup scripts that will install the required packages for most distributions. See <> for details. On macOS, you can install pre-built packages using a third party package manager such as Homebrew or MacPorts. As with Linux, we provide `tools/macos-setup-brew.sh`, which will install the required Homebrew packages. We also provide `tools/macos-setup.sh`, which will download, build, and install required packages. Note that `tools/macos-setup.sh` installs into _/usr/local_ by default; you can change this with the `-p` flag. Windows doesn't have a good library package manager at the present time, so we provide our own pre-built libraries. They can be installed using `tools/win-setup.ps1` and are automatically installed when you run CMake. With the exception of Qt, all libraries required to build Wireshark on Windows are available for download at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/[]. See <> for details. [#ChLibsSetup] === Windows Automated Library Download The required libraries (apart from Qt) are automatically downloaded as part of the CMake generation step, and subsequently as required when libraries are updated. The libraries are downloaded into the directory indicated by the environment variable WIRESHARK_BASE_DIR, this must be set appropriately for your environment. The libraries are downloaded and extracted into WIRESHARK_BASE_DIR\wireshark-x64-libs or WIRESHARK_BASE_DIR\wireshark-arm64-libs depending on your target platform. You may also set the library directory to a custom value with the environment variable WIRESHARK_LIB_DIR, but you may run into problems if you switch between major versions or target platforms. [#ChLibsQt] === Qt The Qt library is used to build the UI for Wireshark and is used to provide a platform independent UI. Wireshark can be built with Qt 5.12 or later, but looks for Qt 6 as the default version. To enable builds with Qt 5.x, the command-line option `-DUSE_qt6=OFF` has to be set for cmake. For more information on the Qt libraries, see <>. [#ChLibsUnixQt] [discrete] ==== Unix Most Linux distributions provide Qt and its development libraries as standard packages. The required libraries and tools will likely be split across several packages. For example, building on Ubuntu requires _qt6-tools-dev_, _qt6-tools-dev-tools_, _libqt6svg6-dev_, _qt6-multimedia-dev_, and possibly others. The Qt Project provides an installation tool for macOS, similar to Windows. It is available at https://www.qt.io/download-open-source/#section-2[]. [#ChLibsWindowsQt] [discrete] ==== Windows Qt 6 must be installed manually from the Qt installers page https://www.qt.io/download-open-source/#section-2[] using the version of Qt appropriate for your compiler. The CMake variable CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH (see `https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/cmake-get-started.html`) should be set to your Qt installation directory, e.g. _C:\Qt{backslash}{qt6-lts-version}\msvc2019_64_. Alternatively you can also use the environment variable WIRESHARK_QT6_PREFIX_PATH. [#ChLibsGLib] === GLib And Supporting Libraries The GLib library is used as a basic platform abstraction library and can be used in both CLI and GUI applications. For a detailed description about GLib see <>. GLib depends on GNU libiconv, GNU gettext, and other libraries. You will typically not come into contact with these while doing Wireshark development. Wireshark's build system check for and require both GLib and its dependencies. [#ChLibsUnixGLib] [discrete] ==== Unix The GLib library is available for most Linux distributions and UNIX flavors. If it isn't already installed and isn't available as a package for your platform, you can get it at https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GLib[]. [#ChLibsWindowsGLib] [discrete] ==== Windows GLib is part of our vcpkg-export bundles and is available at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. [#ChLibsCares] === c-ares C-Ares is used for asynchronous DNS resolution and lets us resolve names with a minimal performance impact. [#ChLibsUnixCares] [discrete] ==== Unix If this library isn't already installed or available as a package for your platform, you can get it at https://c-ares.org/[]. [#ChLibsWindowsCares] [discrete] ==== Windows C-Ares is built using {vcpkg-main-url}[vcpkg] and is available at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. [#ChLibsSMI] === SMI (Optional) LibSMI is used for MIB and PIB parsing and for OID resolution. [#ChLibsUnixSMI] [discrete] ==== Unix If this library isn't already installed or available as a package for your platform, you can get it at https://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/projects/libsmi/[]. [#ChLibsWindowsSMI] [discrete] ==== Windows Wireshark uses the source libSMI distribution at https://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/projects/libsmi/[]. LibSMI is cross-compiled using MinGW32. It’s stored in the libsmi zip archives at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. [#ChLibsZlib] === zlib (Optional) [quote, The zlib web site, https://www.zlib.net/] ____ zlib is designed to be a https://www.zlib.net/zlib_license.html[free], general-purpose, legally unencumbered -- that is, not covered by any patents -- lossless data-compression library for use on virtually any computer hardware and operating system. ____ [#ChLibsUnixZlib] [discrete] ==== Unix This library is almost certain to be installed on your system. If it isn't or you don't want to use the default library you can download it from https://www.zlib.net/[]. [#ChLibsWindowsZlib] [discrete] ==== Windows zlib is part of our vcpkg-export bundles and is available at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. [#ChLibsPcap] === libpcap or Npcap (Optional, But Strongly Recommended) Libpcap and Npcap provide the packet capture capabilities that are central to Wireshark’s core functionality. [#ChLibsLibpcap] [discrete] ==== Unix: libpcap If this library isn't already installed or available as a package for your platform, you can get it at {tcpdump-main-url}. [#ChLibsWinpPcap] [discrete] ==== Windows: Npcap The Windows build environment compiles and links against a libpcap SDK built using {vcpkg-main-url}[vcpkg] and includes the {npcap-main-url}[Npcap packet capture driver] with the .exe installer. Both are <>. You can download the Npcap Windows packet capture library manually from {npcap-main-url}. [WARNING] .Npcap has its own license with its own restrictions ==== Insecure.Com LLC, aka “The Nmap Project” has granted the Wireshark Foundation the right to include Npcap with the installers that we distribute from wireshark.org. If you wish to distribute your own Wireshark installer or any other package that includes Npcap you must comply with the {npcap-license-url}[Npcap license] and may be required to purchase a redistribution license. Please see {npcap-main-url} for more details. ==== [#ChLibsGNUTLS] === GnuTLS (Optional) The GNU Transport Layer Security Library is used to enable TLS decryption using an RSA private key. [#ChLibsUnixGNUTLS] [discrete] ==== Unix If this library isn't already installed or available as a package for your platform, you can get it at https://gnutls.org/[]. [#ChLibsWindowsGNUTLS] [discrete] ==== Windows We provide packages cross-compiled using MinGW32 at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. [#ChLibsGcrypt] === Gcrypt The Gcrypt Library is a low-level cryptographic library that provides support for many ciphers and message authentication codes, such as DES, 3DES, AES, Blowfish, SHA-1, SHA-256, and others. [#ChLibsUnixGcrypt] [discrete] ==== Unix If this library isn't already installed or available as a package for your platform, you can get it at https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Libgcrypt[]. [#ChLibsWindowsGcrypt] [discrete] ==== Windows We provide packages for Windows at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. [#ChLibsKerberos] === Kerberos (Optional) The Kerberos library is used to dissect Kerberos, sealed DCERPC and secure LDAP protocols. [#ChLibsUnixKerberos] [discrete] ==== Unix If this library isn't already installed or available as a package for your platform, you can get it at https://web.mit.edu/Kerberos/dist/[]. [#ChLibsWindowsKerberos] [discrete] ==== Windows We provide packages for Windows at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. [#ChLibsLua] === Lua (Optional) The Lua library is used to add scripting support to Wireshark. Wireshark 4.2.x and earlier support Lua versions 5.1 and 5.2. Recent versions of Wireshark have added support for Lua 5.3 and 5.4 as well. [#ChLibsUnixLua] [discrete] ==== Unix If this library isn't already installed or available as a package for your platform, you can get it at https://www.lua.org/download.html[]. [#ChLibsWindowsLua] [discrete] ==== Windows We provide packages for Windows, patched for UTF-8 support, at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. [#ChLibsMaxMindDB] === MaxMindDB (Optional) MaxMind Inc. publishes a set of IP geolocation databases and related open source libraries. They can be used to map IP addresses to geographical locations and other information. If libmaxminddb library isn't already installed or available as a package for your platform, you can get it at https://github.com/maxmind/libmaxminddb[]. We provide packages for Windows at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. [#ChLibsSparkle] === WinSparkle (Optional) WinSparkle is an easy-to-use software update library for Windows developers. [#ChLibsWinSparkle] [discrete] ==== Windows We provide copies of the WinSparkle package at https://dev-libs.wireshark.org/windows/packages/[]. // End of WSDG Chapter Libraries