# Re: pcap library install on windows without c compiler **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [May 19, 2006, 10:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-pcap-library-install-on-windows-without-c-compiler/95010 "2006-05-19T10:07:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2006, 10:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-pcap-library-install-on-windows-without-c-compiler/95010/1 "2006-05-19T10:07:29Z")
unknown wrote: > Does this help you ? > > \_[pcap - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pcap_) ([pcap - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pcap)) > > Best regards, > > Axel > Not really I need to use > require ‘pcaplet’ > but the ruby library for pcap requires that you make…make install to > install it. I don’t have access to a c compiler. OK. The “./configure make…make install” installation process is something coming from Unix/Linux that doesn’t have anything comparable to it in Windows, AFAIK. One convenient way to overcome that difficulty can be to install Cygwin on your Windows system. That’s an attemp to bring Linux/Unix functionality to Windows. Go to: \_[http://www.cygwin.com/\_](http://www.cygwin.com/_) ([http://www.cygwin.com/](http://www.cygwin.com/)) . it should be sufficient that you download the setup.exe file from the website, which guides you through some Windows-typical setup process. If you have enough space on your computer, choose everything there is , if you have a limited amount of space, be sure to choose the developer tools, including the compiler ‘gcc’ and ‘make’, as well as, of course, Ruby. Then run the GUI installation. This will give you two icons on your desktop, named “Cygwin” and “Cygwin XFree86”. Click any of these. This opens a console window. To install a package from source under Linux/Unix/Cygwin, you download the package package-version1.2.3.tar.gz to your computer, and best move it (under Windows) to the directory C:/cygwin/usr/local . Then, in the console, go to that directory: cd /usr/local (in Linux, the main path is named /, and Cygwin puts it at C:/cygwin), unpack and decompress it: gunzip package-version1.2.3.tar.gz tar xvf package-version1.2.3.tar . This creates a subdirectory for the software, C:/cygwin/usr/local/package-version1.2.3, now go there cd package-version1.2.3 and type in (notice the dot): ./configure make make install The last three command allow it to set up the software on many different machines which have their specialties, and therefore, you’ll get a lot of output and in between the make and the make install, you’ll probably have time to drink some coffee. It may also be necessary to set some properties for your particular software, decorating any of these last three commands with nice options. You can find these things in a file INSTALL or README that is in the C:/cygwin/usr/local/package-version1.2.3 directory. Best regards, Axel ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-pcap-library-install-on-windows-without-c-compiler/95010/2 "2006-05-19T15:30:59Z")
On 5/19/06, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > OK. The “./configure make…make install” installation process is something > coming from Unix/Linux that doesn’t have anything comparable to it in > Windows, AFAIK. One convenient way to overcome that difficulty can be > to install Cygwin on your Windows system. That’s an attemp to bring > Linux/Unix functionality to Windows. > Go to: > > \_[http://www.cygwin.com/\_](http://www.cygwin.com/_) ([http://www.cygwin.com/](http://www.cygwin.com/)) . Better to use MINGW/MSYS than Cygwin. Cygwin is … not a good choice most of the time with Windows. -austin