$Id: INSTALL,v 1.6 2001/06/05 20:15:10 pcharles Exp $

              net.sourceforge.jpcap installation information


  jpcap introduction

    jpcap is a Java package for use by developers who wish to capture 
    network packets.

    jpcap hides the low-level details of network packet capture by 
    abstracting many network packet types and protocols into Java classes. 
    Internally, jpcap implements bindings to the libpcap system library 
    through JNI (the Java Native Interface). libpcap must be installed 
    on the host system to use jpcap. 

    Included in the distribution is a sample application which utilizes 
    jpcap. Implemented is a console for capturing network packets and a 
    panel for graphically visualizing network traffic.


  installation procedure

    0. If you are reading this, you've probably already fetched and unarchived
       the distribution. If so, skip to step #4.

    1. Fetch the latest jpcap distribution from http://sf.net/projects/jpcap.
       The distribution is a tar file. i.e. jpcap-vX.YY.ZZ.tar.gz

        The tar file contains the following:
          - jpcap project source and class files compiled for any platform
          - source code for libjpcap (a pcap wrapper containing java hooks)
          - libjpcap.so compiled for Linux/intel platforms
          - makefiles for building the project on most unix platforms
          - a sample application for visualizing network traffic

        The distribution does not contain pcap.
        libpcap can be downloaded from the authors at http://www.tcpdump.org/.

     2. Unarchive the jpcap distribution using the following command:
        gunzip -c jpcap-vX.YY.ZZ.tar.gz | tar xvf -

     3. Go into the directory containing the distribution:
        cd jpcap-vX.YY.ZZ

     4. A shell script wrapper which runs the sample capture and network
        traffic visualization tool is located in jpcap/scripts/jpcaptool.

     5. You may need to edit this script file to specify the location where 
        a Java VM is installed on your system.

     6. Run the test application:

          ./jpcaptool


        In order to use certain commands, including 'capture', you might 
        need to run the application as root.


     7. If you need assistance, check under Forum (in the Help area) 
        or under Support (in the Support Request tracking tool.)

          The project is hosted at http://sf.net/projects/jpcap/

