1.5. Releases and distributions
The officially released files can be found at: https://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 disadvantages.
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 dependencies and installs the software.
However, if you want to start developing with Wireshark, the binary
distributions won't be too helpful, 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) distributions
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.
