Platform Options
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## Platform Options

Qualcomm Atheros makes no claim that the Open Powerline Toolkit will compile and link in all environments without generating warnings or errors. Different compilers, and compiler versions, treat certain conditions differently and different distributions include different header files or define standard constants and macros differently. Developers should expect to make some source code and makefile modifications to match their environment.

The principle consideration is support for raw Ethernet frames. Other considerations include POSIX compliance, system header file locations, compiler version and library support. This section discusses some of these considerations.

### GNU/Linux

The toolkit will compile and execute on GNU/Linux systems without modification by using standard Linux header files and native Linux libraries. Raw socket support is native to the Linux Kernel. This is the preferred environment due to cost, networking speed and ease of access to Layer 2 networking.

Qualcomm Atheros has cross-compiled and executed versions of the toolkit on MontaVista™ and AMiLDA™ Linux both for MIPSEL™ processors. Most toolkit makefiles have symbolic hooks for cross-compilers but Qualcomm Atheros does not support cross-compilation efforts on any platform.

### GNU/Linux with Libpcap

The toolkit can compile and will execute on GNU/Linux systems having the libpcap development package and runtime libraries installed; however, this feature is disabled by default because it is not needed on Linux and offers no benefits over native Linux sockets.

### GNU/Linux with BPF

The toolkit should compile and execute on GNU/Linux systems having BPF compiled into the kernel but modifications would be needed to toolkit source code. This configuration has not been tested but the source code is present to support it. Consult Qualcomm Atheros if this option is of interest to you.

### Mac OS X™ with BPF

The toolkit will compile and execute on Mac OS X without modification by using native BPF support compiled into the Darwin kernel. Compilation is clean on Leopard and should be fairly clean on Tiger.

You may observe compiler warnings concerning the `size_t` data type and `print` statements. These warning occur because Mac OS X defined the `size_t` data type as a 64-bit integer while most other systems define it as a 32-bit integer. Ignore the warnings. We will eventually eliminate them all.

You may observe a compiler warning concerning the definition of intrinsic function `snprinf`. We are not sure what causes this warning but it will be corrected eventually.

### Windows XP™ with Winpcap

The toolkit will compile and execute on Microsoft Windows XP™ having WinPcap 4.0.1 runtime libraries installed. To assist windows developers, the toolkit includes a Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003™ solution file plus required WinPcap 4.0.1 header files and libraries. The resulting programs should execute on any Microsoft Windows™ computer having WinPcap 4.0.1 runtime libraries installed. Qualcomm Atheros does not support the toolkit under any Microsoft Windows™ operating system at this time.

Recent versions of the toolkit include self-extracting file `.\VisualStudioNET\WinPcap4_0_1.exe` that installs WinPcap 4.0.1 libraries on your system in cases where you have another version installed. If this creates a conflict the you must resolve it to satisfy your system requirements.

This is not the preferred Toolkit environment due to cost, networking overhead, difficulty accessing Layer network support and lack of a powerful native scripting language. Qualcomm Atheros has not implemented all Toolkit programs on Windows for technical reasons.

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