Is there a way to change the default location of the personal config folder?
I'd like to move my personal config folder to Dropbox (or, some other syncing location).
I don't see a a way to do this in Wireshark for Windows, or Mac.
Is this even possible? CanI move that folder anywhere I want and point Wireshark to it?
The easiest way is to create a folder in your dropbox folder (or any other folder on your system) and then symlink the wireshark configuration directory to that folder.
You might want to just do this for the profiles folder as some of the items in the normal configuration folder are somewhat system specific. I have the following on my Mac:
sake@MacSake:~/.config/wireshark$ ls -l profiles
lrwxr-xr-x 1 sake staff 51 Jan 25 2017 profiles -> /Users/sake/Dropbox/sync/.config/wireshark/profiles
sake@MacSake:~/.config/wireshark$
In my sync folder on dropbox I keep a set of things I want to sync between systems, one of which is the wireshark profiles folder.
As documented in the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section of the Wireshark man page, you can override the default location of personal configuration files using the WIRESHARK_CONFIG_DIR environment variable. This method should work on all platforms.
WIRESHARK_CONFIG_DIR
This environment variable overrides the location of personal configuration files. It defaults to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wireshark (or $HOME/.wireshark if the former is missing while the latter exists). On Windows, %APPDATA%\Wireshark is used instead. Available since Wireshark 3.0.
Thank you for responses!
! I have done the symlinks in the past, but for some reason, Dropbox os no longer recognizing/syncs them.
I was hoping there was another way to change the location like you can on many apps. Would be a better the solution, I thin, then symlinks.
This comment belongs under Sake's answer, not mine, since he's the one who suggested using symlinks. Can you add your comment there and delete this one?
I'll just respond here until the comment is moved, then I will move my comment too :-)
I think dropbox will not sync anything outside of the dropbox folder to which you have a link inside the dropbox folder. But having the data inside the dropbox folder and then symlink to it from the outside should work (as I am doing that).
And yes, it would be nice if this was a configurable item. You may want to submit an enhancement request on https://bugs.wireshark.org
I apologize for my ignorance cmaynard, but I can't find WHERE to add that environment variable. Is it in the "preferences" file?
I don't see a a way to do this in Wireshark for Windows, or Mac.
On Windows: Control Panel -> All Control Panel Items -> System -> Advanced system settings -> Environment Variables... -> New... -> Variable name: WIRESHARK_CONFIG_DIR, Variable value: TBD.
On Mac: I'm not a Mac user, but assuming it's similar enough to Linux and your shell is bash, edit .bash_profile to add the new assignment, i.e.: export WIRESHARK_CONFIG_DIR=/path/to/wireshark/config/dir
These methods will make the change permanent, but you could also wrap them in a batch file or shell script that first sets the environment variable and then calls Wireshark if you don't want to change the default configuration.
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