Installing the Latest Version of Nmap Using Subversion

As of the last year or so my preferred method for installing and updating nmap is to use subversion. It’s a good way to make sure you have the latest features available to you, and it’s easy to get up and running with. Here’s how:

[ I’m using OS X, but it’s pretty much an identical process in Linux. And if you are using OS X be sure to install subversion first, which I use macports to do. ]

1. Download the Software

First move to a place on your filesystem that you want the new nmap directory to exist. Then it’s just one command to log in to the repository and pull the entire tree.

[bash] svn co –username guest –password “” svn://svn.insecure.org/nmap/[/bash]

2. Configure, Make, Make Install

Move into the nmap directory that’s now there and run configure.

[bash]cd nmap ./configure[/bash]

Then make.

[bash]make[/bash]

Then install it.

[bash]sudo make install[/bash]

3. Point to the New Version

Then create an alias for nmap that points to the new location.

[bash]alias nmap="sudo /Users/daniel/Applications/nmap/nmap"[/bash]

4. Enjoy

Reload your aliases file and you're all set to run the latest version of nmap.

[bash]cd source .aliases nmap --version[/bash]

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