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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