Pulsar Wireshark dissector

The Pulsar Wireshark dissector allows to automatically decode the Pulsar binary protocol and visualize useful debug information (linking requests with responses, latency stats, etc.)

Install Wireshark

Based on your operating system, run the following command.

• macOS

brew install homebrew/cask/wireshark

• Ubuntu

sudo apt install wireshark

Install dependencies

To build the Wireshark plugin, install Wireshark with the development headers

NOTE

Make sure the Wireshark application version is the same as the Wireshark headers version.

• macOS

$ brew install wireshark

• Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install wireshark-dev

Compile the dissector

Tip

If the compiler cannot find the Wireshark headers, add the include path manually. -DWIRESHARK_INCLUDE_PATH=<WIRESHARK_INCLUDE_PATH>

Compile the dissector.

cd pulsar-client-cpp
cmake -DBUILD_WIRESHARK=ON .
make pulsar-dissector

This creates the pulsar-dissector.so plugin library in the Wireshark directory.

Install Wireshark dissector

Copy the dissector in the appropriate location so that Wireshark can find it at startup.

Find the Personal Plugins Location

1. Open Wireshark.
2. Click About Wireshark.
3. Click Folders tab.

You can see the location of personal plugins, which is important for the next step.

Example

Wireshark 3.6.0 on macOS

~/.local/lib/wireshark/plugins/3-6/

Copy Wireshark dissector to appropriate location

mkdir -p ~/.local/lib/wireshark/plugins/3-6/epan
cd pulsar-client-cpp/wireshark
cp pulsar-dissector.so ~/.local/lib/wireshark/plugins/3-6/epan

Complete installation

Reboot Wireshark. You can see the pulsar-dissector in View > Internals > Dissector Tables.