
.. _CMake: https://cmake.org
.. _SWIG: https://www.swig.org
.. _Xcode: https://developer.apple.com/xcode/
.. _MacPorts: https://www.macports.org
.. _Fink: https://www.finkproject.org
.. _Homebrew: https://brew.sh
.. _downloads page: https://zeek.org/get-zeek
.. _devtoolset: https://developers.redhat.com/products/red-hat-developer-toolset/getting-started
.. _ZeekControl: https://github.com/zeek/zeekctl
.. _websockets: https://websockets.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
.. _zkg package manager: https://docs.zeek.org/projects/package-manager/en/stable/
.. _crosstool-NG: https://crosstool-ng.github.io/
.. _CMake toolchain: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cmake-toolchains.7.html
.. _contribute: https://github.com/zeek/zeek/wiki/Contribution-Guide
.. _Chocolatey: https://chocolatey.org
.. _Npcap: https://npcap.com/

.. _building-from-source:

====================
Building from Source
====================

Building Zeek from source provides the most control over your build and is the
preferred approach for advanced users. We support a wide range of operating
systems and distributions. Our `support policy
<https://github.com/zeek/zeek/wiki/Platform-Support-Policy>`_ is informed by
what we can run in our CI pipelines with reasonable effort, with the current
status captured in our `support matrix
<https://github.com/zeek/zeek/wiki/Zeek-Operating-System-Support-Matrix>`_.

Required Dependencies
---------------------

Building Zeek from source requires the following dependencies, including
development headers for libraries:

    * Bash (for ZeekControl and BTest)
    * BIND8 library or greater (if not covered by system's libresolv)
    * Bison 3.3 or greater (https://www.gnu.org/software/bison/)
    * C/C++ compiler with C++20 support (GCC 12+ or Clang 10+)
    * CMake 3.15 or greater (https://cmake.org)
    * Flex (lexical analyzer generator) 2.6 or greater (https://github.com/westes/flex)
    * Libpcap (https://www.tcpdump.org)
    * Make
    * OpenSSL (https://www.openssl.org)
    * Python 3.9 or greater (https://www.python.org/)
    * SWIG (https://www.swig.org)
    * ZeroMQ 4.3.0 or greater (https://zeromq.org)
    * Zlib (https://zlib.net/)

To install these, you can use:

* RPM/RedHat-based Linux:

  .. code-block:: console

     sudo dnf install bison cmake cppzmq-devel gcc gcc-c++ flex libpcap-devel make openssl-devel python3 python3-devel python3-venv swig zlib-devel

  Additionally, on RHEL/CentOS 9, you can install and activate a devtoolset_ to get access
  to recent GCC versions. For example:

  .. code-block:: console

     sudo dnf install gcc-toolset-12-gcc-c++
     scl enable gcc-toolset-12 bash

  You can also use the ``alternatives`` command to make GCC 12 the default on your system
  instead of starting a new shell with ``scl enable``:

  .. code-block:: console

     sudo alternatives --install  /usr/bin/gcc gcc /opt/rh/gcc-toolset-12/root/bin/gcc 10
     sudo alternatives --install  /usr/bin/g++ g++ /opt/rh/gcc-toolset-12/root/bin/g++ 10

* DEB/Debian-based Linux:

  .. code-block:: console

     sudo apt-get install bison cmake cppzmq-dev gcc g++ flex libfl-dev libpcap-dev libssl-dev make python3 python3-dev python3-venv swig zlib1g-dev

  If your platform doesn't offer ``cppzmq-dev``, try ``libzmq3-dev``
  instead. Zeek's build will fall back to an in-tree version of C++
  bindings to ZeroMQ in that case.

* FreeBSD:

  Most required dependencies should come with a minimal FreeBSD install
  except for the following.

  .. code-block:: console

      sudo pkg install -y base64 bash bison cmake cppzmq git python3 swig
      pyver=`python3 -c 'import sys; print(f"py{sys.version_info[0]}{sys.version_info[1]}")'`
      sudo pkg install -y $pyver-sqlite3

* macOS:

  Compiling source code on Macs requires first installing either Xcode_
  or the "Command Line Tools" (which is a much smaller download).  To check
  if either is installed, run the ``xcode-select -p`` command.  If you see
  an error message, then neither is installed and you can then run
  ``xcode-select --install`` which will prompt you to either get Xcode (by
  clicking "Get Xcode") or to install the command line tools (by
  clicking "Install").

  macOS comes with all required dependencies except for CMake_, SWIG_,
  Bison, Flex, and OpenSSL (OpenSSL headers were removed in macOS 10.11,
  therefore OpenSSL must be installed manually for macOS versions 10.11
  or newer).

  Distributions of these dependencies can likely be obtained from your
  preferred macOS package management system (e.g. Homebrew_,
  MacPorts_, or Fink_). Specifically for Homebrew, the ``bison``, ``cmake``,
  ``cppzmq``, ``flex``, ``swig``, and ``openssl`` packages
  provide the required dependencies.  For MacPorts, use the ``bison``, ``cmake``,
  ``cppzmq``, ``flex``, ``swig``, ``swig-python``, and ``openssl`` packages.

* Windows

  Windows support is experimental. These instructions are meant as a starting
  point for development on that platform, and might have issues or be missing
  steps. Notify the Zeek team if any such problems arise.

  Compiling on Windows requires the installation of a development environment.
  Zeek currently builds on Visual Studio 2019, and you can either install the
  full version including the UI tools or you can install the command-line tools
  and build from a shell. The instructions below describe how to install the
  command-line tools, but are not necessary if you install the full VS2019
  package. You will need to install Chocolatey_ in order to install the
  dependencies as instructed below. It's possible to install them from other
  sources (msys2, cygwin, etc), which we leave to the reader.

  Cloning the repository will also require Developer Mode to be enabled in
  Windows. This is due to the existence of a number of symbolic links in the
  repository. Without Developer Mode, ``git`` on Windows will ignore these
  links and builds will fail. There are a couple of different ways to enable
  it, and the settings may differ depending on the version of Windows.

  .. code-block:: console

     choco install -y --no-progress visualstudio2019buildtools --version=16.11.11.0
     choco install -y --no-progress visualstudio2019-workload-vctools --version=1.0.0 --package-parameters '--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATLMFC'
     choco install -y --no-progress sed
     choco install -y --no-progress winflexbison3
     choco install -y --no-progress msysgit
     choco install -y --no-progress python

  Once the dependencies are installed, you will need to add the Git installation
  to your PATH (``C:\Program Files\Git\bin`` by default). This is needed for the
  ``sh`` command to be available during the build. Once all of the dependencies
  are in place, you will need to open a shell (PowerShell or cmd) and add the
  development environment to it. The following command is for running on an
  x86_64 host.

  .. code-block:: console

     C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvarsall.bat x86_amd64

  Now you can build via cmake:

  .. code-block:: console

     mkdir build
     cd build
     cmake.exe .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=release -DENABLE_ZEEK_UNIT_TESTS=yes -DENABLE_CLUSTER_BACKEND_ZEROMQ=no -DVCPKG_TARGET_TRIPLET="x64-windows-static" -G Ninja
     cmake.exe --build .

  All of this is duplicated in the CI configuration for Windows which lives in
  the ``ci/windows`` directory, and can be used as a reference for running the
  commands by hand.

  Note: By default, Windows links against the standard libpcap library from
  vcpkg. This version of libpcap does not support packet capture on Windows,
  unlike other platforms. In order to capture packets from live interfaces on
  Windows, you will need to link against the Npcap_ library. This library is free
  for personal use, but requires a paid license for commercial use or
  redistribution. To link against Npcap, download the SDK from their website,
  unzip it, and then pass ``-DPCAP_ROOT_DIR="<path to npcap sdk>"`` to the
  initial CMake invocation for Zeek.

  Note also that the ZeroMQ cluster backend is not yet supported on Windows.

Optional Dependencies
---------------------

Zeek can make use of some optional libraries and tools if they are found at
build time:

    * libmaxminddb (for geolocating IP addresses)
    * sendmail (enables Zeek and ZeekControl to send mail)
    * curl (used by a Zeek script that implements active HTTP)
    * gperftools (tcmalloc is used to improve memory and CPU usage)
    * jemalloc (https://github.com/jemalloc/jemalloc)
    * PF_RING (Linux only, see :ref:`pf-ring-config`)
    * krb5 libraries and headers
    * ipsumdump (for trace-summary; https://github.com/kohler/ipsumdump)
    * hiredis (for the Redis storage backend)

Geolocation is probably the most interesting and can be installed on most
platforms by following the instructions for :ref:`address geolocation and AS
lookups <geolocation>`.

The `ZeekControl`_ management shell has an optional dependency on the Python
`websockets`_ package version 11.0 or later for interacting with Zeek nodes.
This package is available on PyPI under the name ``websockets``. On Ubuntu
and Fedora, the distribution package is called ``python3-websockets``.

.. note::

   Some distributions do not yet have websockets version 11.0 or later packaged.
   If you encounter troubles when using the distribution package, we recommend
   installing a more recent websockets version into ``$PREFIX/lib/zeek/python/``
   using ``pip``.

   .. code-block:: console

       pip install --target /opt/zeek/lib/zeek/python/ websockets


The `zkg package manager`_, included in the Zeek installation, requires
two external Python modules:

    * GitPython: https://pypi.org/project/GitPython/
    * semantic-version: https://pypi.org/project/semantic-version/

These install easily via pip (``pip3 install GitPython
semantic-version``) and also ship with some distributions:

* RPM/RedHat-based Linux:

  .. code-block:: console

     sudo yum install python3-GitPython python3-semantic_version

* DEB/Debian-based Linux:

  .. code-block:: console

     sudo apt-get install python3-git python3-semantic-version

``zkg`` also requires a ``git`` installation, which the above system packages
pull in as a dependency. If you install via pip, remember that you also need
``git`` itself.

Retrieving the Sources
----------------------

Zeek releases are bundled into source packages for convenience and are
available on the `downloads page`_. The source code can be manually downloaded
from the link in the ``.tar.gz`` format to the target system for installation.

If you plan to `contribute`_ to Zeek or just want to try out the latest
features under development, you should obtain Zeek's source code through its
Git repositories hosted at https://github.com/zeek:

.. code-block:: console

    git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/zeek/zeek

.. note:: If you choose to clone the ``zeek`` repository
   non-recursively for a "minimal Zeek experience", be aware that
   compiling it depends on several of the other submodules as well, so
   you'll likely have to build/install those independently first.

Configuring and Building
------------------------

The typical way to build and install from source is as follows:

.. code-block:: console

    ./configure
    make
    make install

If the ``configure`` script fails, then it is most likely because it either
couldn't find a required dependency or it couldn't find a sufficiently new
version of a dependency.  Assuming that you already installed all required
dependencies, then you may need to use one of the ``--with-*`` options
that can be given to the ``configure`` script to help it locate a dependency.
To find out what all different options ``./configure`` supports, run
``./configure --help``.

The default installation path is ``/usr/local/zeek``, which would typically
require root privileges when doing the ``make install``.  A different
installation path can be chosen by specifying the ``configure`` script
``--prefix`` option.  Note that ``/usr``, ``/opt/bro/``, and ``/opt/zeek`` are
the standard prefixes for binary Zeek packages to be installed, so those are
typically not good choices unless you are creating such a package.

Depending on the Zeek package you downloaded, there may be auxiliary
tools and libraries available in the ``auxil/`` directory. Some of them
will be automatically built and installed along with Zeek. There are
``--disable-*`` options that can be given to the configure script to
turn off unwanted auxiliary projects that would otherwise be installed
automatically.  Finally, use ``make install-aux`` to install some of
the other programs that are in the ``auxil/zeek-aux`` directory.

Finally, if you want to build the Zeek documentation (not required, because
all of the documentation for the latest Zeek release is available at
https://docs.zeek.org), there are instructions in ``doc/README`` in the source
distribution.

Cross Compiling
---------------

Prerequisites
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You need three things on the host system:

1. The Zeek source tree.
2. A cross-compilation toolchain, such as one built via crosstool-NG_.
3. Pre-built Zeek dependencies from the target system.  This usually
   includes libpcap, zlib, OpenSSL, and Python development headers
   and libraries.

Configuration and Compiling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You first need to compile a few build tools native to the host system
for use during the later cross-compile build.  In the root of your
Zeek source tree:

.. code-block:: console

   ./configure --builddir=../zeek-buildtools
   ( cd ../zeek-buildtools && make binpac bifcl )

Next configure Zeek to use your cross-compilation toolchain (this example
uses a Raspberry Pi as the target system):

.. code-block:: console

   ./configure --toolchain=/home/jon/x-tools/RaspberryPi-toolchain.cmake --with-binpac=$(pwd)/../zeek-buildtools/auxil/binpac/src/binpac --with-bifcl=$(pwd)/../zeek-buildtools/src/bifcl

Here, the :file:`RaspberryPi-toolchain.cmake` file specifies a `CMake
toolchain`_.  In the toolchain file, you need to point the toolchain and
compiler at the cross-compilation toolchain.  It might look something the
following:

.. code-block:: cmake

  # Operating System on which CMake is targeting.
  set(CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME Linux)

  # The CMAKE_STAGING_PREFIX option may not work.
  # Given that Zeek is configured:
  #
  #   ``./configure --prefix=<dir>``
  #
  # The options are:
  #
  #   (1) ``make install`` and then copy over the --prefix dir from host to
  #       target system.
  #
  #   (2) ``DESTDIR=<staging_dir> make install`` and then copy over the
  #       contents of that staging directory.

  set(toolchain /home/jon/x-tools/arm-rpi-linux-gnueabihf)
  set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER   ${toolchain}/bin/arm-rpi-linux-gnueabihf-gcc)
  set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER ${toolchain}/bin/arm-rpi-linux-gnueabihf-g++)

  # The cross-compiler/linker will use these paths to locate dependencies.
  set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH
      /home/jon/x-tools/zeek-rpi-deps
      ${toolchain}/arm-rpi-linux-gnueabihf/sysroot
  )

  set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_PROGRAM NEVER)
  set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_LIBRARY ONLY)
  set(CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH_MODE_INCLUDE ONLY)

If that configuration succeeds you are ready to build:

.. code-block:: console

   make

And if that works, install on your host system:

.. code-block:: console

   make install

Once installed, you can copy/move the files from the installation prefix on the
host system to the target system and start running Zeek as usual.

Configuring the Run-Time Environment
====================================

You may want to adjust your :envvar:`PATH` environment variable
according to the platform/shell/package you're using since
neither :file:`/usr/local/zeek/bin/` nor :file:`/opt/zeek/bin/`
will reside in the default :envvar:`PATH`. For example:

Bourne-Shell Syntax:

.. code-block:: console

   export PATH=/usr/local/zeek/bin:$PATH

C-Shell Syntax:

.. code-block:: console

   setenv PATH /usr/local/zeek/bin:$PATH

Or substitute ``/opt/zeek/bin`` instead if you installed from a binary package.

Zeek supports several environment variables to adjust its behavior. Take a look
at the ``zeek --help`` output for details.
