Build From Source on Windows - MinGW-w64

Prerequisites

In order to compile PcapPlusPlus on Windows using MinGW-w64 you need the following components:

1. CMake which can be installed from: https://cmake.org/install/ or with pacman if using MSYS2: pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake

2. Download and run MinGW-w64 installer from here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64/

3. Make sure that MinGW-w64 bin directory is in your PATH environment variable, for example:

   PATH=%PATH%;C:\mingw-w64\i686-8.1.0-posix-dwarf-rt_v6-rev0\mingw32\bin

4. Download and install WinPcap OR Npcap on your system

   Note for Npcap:

   If you install Npcap please check the Install Npcap in WinPcap API-compatilbility mode option during installation:

   

5. WinPcap developer's pack OR Npcap SDK - containing the wpcap library PcapPlusPlus is linking with plus relevant .h files.

   1. WinPcap developer's pack can be downloaded from here: https://www.winpcap.org/devel.htm
   2. Npcap SDK can be downloaded from here: https://nmap.org/npcap/#download

Build

Assuming you want to build PcapPlusPlus into a build directory:

cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -DPCAP_ROOT=<NpcapSDK_or_WinPcapDevPack_Directory> -S . -B build

And then initiate the build in one of two ways:

• Using CMake:

  cmake --build build
• Using make:

  cd build
  make

This process will build the following artifacts:

• PcapPlusPlus libs:
  • build\Common++\libCommon++.a
  • build\Packet++\libPacket++.a
  • build\Pcap++\libPcap++.a
• PcapPlusPlus examples binaries under build\examples_bin
• PcapPlusPlus tests:
  • <PcapPlusPlus_Dir>\Tests\Packet++Test\Bin\Packet++Test.exe
  • <PcapPlusPlus_Dir>\Tests\Pcap++Test\Bin\Pcap++Test.exe

The following configuration options are available (on top of CMake's built-in options):

Option	Description
-DPCAP_ROOT=<DIR>	Npcap SDK or WinPcap developer pack directory (mandatory option)
-DPCAPPP_BUILD_EXAMPLES=<ON/OFF>	Build PcapPlusPlus examples (default value is ON if building the project itself, otherwise OFF)
-DPCAPPP_BUILD_TESTS=<ON/OFF>	Build PcapPlusPlus tests (default value is ON if building the project itself, otherwise OFF)
-DPCAPPP_BUILD_TUTORIALS=<ON/OFF>	Build PcapPlusPlus tutorials. This option is only available if DPCAPPP_BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON. The tutorials binaries will be under build\tutorials_bin (default value is OFF)
-DPCAPPP_INSTALL=<ON/OFF>	Install PcapPlusPlus (default value is ON if building the project itself, otherwise OFF)
-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=<ON/OFF>	Build shared libs (default value is OFF)
-DPCAPPP_ENABLE_PCAP_IMMEDIATE_MODE=<ON/OFF>	Enable pcap immediate mode, available only in Npcap (default value is OFF)
-DPCAPPP_ENABLE_PCAP_SET_DIRECTION=<ON/OFF>	Enable set direction for capturing incoming or outgoing packets (default value is OFF)

Installation

Windows doesn't have a default install directory, but you may want to see all libs, header files and examples under one directory (which is not the build directory). Here is how to acheive that:

set DESTDIR=<DIR>
cmake --install build --prefix "/"

Running tests

PcapPlusPlus contains a set of test-cases you can run to make sure that everything works correctly on your system. This guide contains detailed instructions on how to run them.