Wireshark-dev: [Wireshark-dev] Installed protocol header file cleanup

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From: Gerald Combs <gerald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 11:59:50 -0800
Hi all,

As of commit b5b868d6b6, Wireshark's master branch now automatically generates the list of dissector header files that are included in the "install" target. This removes a bunch of headers for protocols that are no longer in wide use, such as AppleTalk, ARCNET, eDonkey, and NIS/YP, while preserving headers that should obviously be included, such as ones that define public functions. You can find a list of changes at

https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/merge_requests/22579/diffs#244f01729cabaa1dcbc8569b0886d5529384718f_260_252

However it might also remove a less obvious header that you depend on. If that's the case, you can add it back by opening a merge request that marks it as a public header using a comment, e.g.

    // PUBLIC_HEADER: This is used for a custom dissector for [foo]

Note that this change will affect the next major release of Wireshark, and won't be backported to the 4.6 or 4.4 release branches.