1.3. Supported Platforms

Wireshark currently runs on most UNIX-like platforms and various Windows platforms. It requires Qt, GLib, libpcap and some other libraries in order to run.

As Wireshark is developed in a platform independent way and uses libraries (such as the Qt GUI library) which are available for many different platforms, it’s thus available on a wide variety of platforms.

If a binary package is not available for your platform, you should download the source and try to build it. Please report your experiences to wireshark-dev[AT]wireshark.org.

Binary packages are available for the following platforms along with many others:

1.3.1. Unix And Unix-like Platforms

  • Apple macOS
  • FreeBSD
  • HP-UX
  • IBM AIX
  • NetBSD
  • OpenBSD
  • Oracle Solaris

1.3.1.1. Linux

  • Arch Linux
  • Debian GNU/Linux
  • Ubuntu
  • Fedora
  • Gentoo Linux
  • IBM S/390 Linux (Red Hat)
  • Mandriva Linux
  • PLD Linux
  • Red Hat Linux
  • Slackware Linux
  • Suse Linux

1.3.2. Microsoft Windows

Wireshark supports Windows natively via the Windows API. Note that in this documentation and elsewhere we tend to use the terms “Win32”, “Win”, and “Windows” interchangeably to refer to the Windows API. “Win64” refers to the Windows API on 64-bit platforms. Wireshark runs on and can be compiled on the following Windows versions:

  • Windows 10 / Windows Server 2016 / Windows Server 2019
  • Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012

Development on Windows 7, Server 2008 R2, Vista, Server 2008, and older versions may be possible but is not supported.

Some versions of Windows support case sensitive directories. We don’t officially support building or running Wireshark in this environment, but we will accept patches to fix any issues that might arise.