Skip to main content
Version: v21.11

Build From Source on FreeBSD

Prerequisites​

In order to compile PcapPlusPlus on FreeBSD please make sure you have the following components installed:

  • git (if not installed please run: pkg install git)
  • gsed (if not installed please run: pkg install gsed)
  • gmake (if not installed please run: pkg install gmake)
  • libpcap (if not installed please run: pkg install libpcap)

Configuration​

Run the configuration script from PcapPlusPlus main directory:

./configure-freebsd.sh

This script has the following command-line switches (you can also view then by running ./configure-freebsd.sh --help or ./configure-freebsd.sh -h):

OptionDescription
no switchesuse the default configuration
--use-immediate-modeuse libpcap immediate mode which enables getting packets as fast as possible (supported on libpcap>=1.5)
--set-direction-enabledset direction for capturing incoming or outgoing packets (supported on libpcap>=0.9.1)
--install-dirset a custom installation directory. Default is /usr/local
--libpcap-include-dirlibpcap header files directory. This parameter is optional and if omitted PcapPlusPlus will look for the header files in the default include paths
--libpcap-lib-dirlibpcap pre compiled lib directory. This parameter is optional and if omitted PcapPlusPlus will look for the lib file in the default lib paths
-h, --helpdisplays a help message and exits. No further actions are performed

Here are a few examples:

Default configuration:

./configure-freebsd.sh

Configure PcapPlusPlus with libpcap's immediate mode:

./configure-freebsd.sh --use-immediate-mode

Configure PcapPlusPlus with libpcap's set direction:

./configure-freebsd.sh --set-direction-enabled

Provide non-standard paths for libpcap header and library files:

./configure-freebsd.sh --libpcap-include-dir /my-folder/my-libpcap/include --libpcap-lib-dir /my-folder/my-libpcap/lib

Provide a custom installation directory:

./configure-freebsd.sh --install-dir /my-folder/my-install-dir

Build the code​

After running the config script, you're can safely build the code:

  1. Run gmake or gmake all from PcapPlusPlus main directory
  2. This should compile all libraries, unit-tests and examples
  3. To build the libraries only (without the unit-tests and examples) run gmake libs instead of gmake all
  4. After compilation you can find the libraries, examples, header files and helpful makefiles under the Dist directory

Installation​

After build is complete you can run the installation script which will copy the library and header files to the installation directory:

sudo gmake install

The default installation directory is /usr/local which means the header files will be copied to /usr/local/include/pcapplusplus and the library files will be copied to /usr/local/lib.

You can change the installation directory by using the --install-dir switch in the configuration script.

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.