Installation

This guide will walk you through installing Obfussor and all its prerequisites on your system.

Prerequisites

Before installing Obfussor, ensure you have the following tools installed:

Required Tools

1. Node.js (v18.0.0 or later)

Node.js is required for the Angular frontend.

Windows:

# Download and install from nodejs.org
# Or use Chocolatey
choco install nodejs

# Verify installation
node --version
npm --version

macOS:

# Using Homebrew
brew install node

# Verify installation
node --version
npm --version

Linux:

# Ubuntu/Debian
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Fedora
sudo dnf install nodejs

# Verify installation
node --version
npm --version

2. Bun (Latest Version)

Bun is a fast JavaScript runtime and package manager used in this project.

Windows:

# Using PowerShell
powershell -c "irm bun.sh/install.ps1 | iex"

# Verify installation
bun --version

macOS/Linux:

# Using curl
curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

# Verify installation
bun --version

3. Rust (Latest Stable)

Rust is required for the Tauri backend and LLVM integration.

All Platforms:

# Install rustup (Rust installer)
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# On Windows, download and run rustup-init.exe from rustup.rs

# Follow the prompts and choose default installation

# Restart your terminal, then verify
rustc --version
cargo --version

Post-Installation:

# Update Rust to latest version
rustup update

# Add common components
rustup component add rustfmt clippy

4. Tauri CLI

Tauri CLI is required to build and run the desktop application.

# Install Tauri CLI via Cargo
cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2.0"

# Verify installation
cargo tauri --version

5. LLVM (Version 14.0 or later)

LLVM is the core dependency for obfuscation functionality.

Windows:

# Download pre-built binaries from llvm.org
# Or use Chocolatey
choco install llvm

# Add to PATH: C:\Program Files\LLVM\bin

macOS:

# Using Homebrew
brew install llvm

# Add to PATH (add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bash_profile)
echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/llvm/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

# Verify installation
llvm-config --version

Linux:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install llvm-14 llvm-14-dev clang-14

# Fedora
sudo dnf install llvm llvm-devel clang

# Verify installation
llvm-config --version

Optional Tools

Git

Version control for cloning the repository:

# Windows (Chocolatey)
choco install git

# macOS
brew install git

# Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt-get install git

# Verify
git --version

Visual Studio Code

Recommended IDE with excellent Rust, Angular, and TypeScript support:

# Download from code.visualstudio.com

# Recommended Extensions:
# - rust-analyzer
# - Angular Language Service
# - Tauri
# - ESLint
# - Prettier

Platform-Specific Requirements

Windows

Visual Studio Build Tools (required for Rust compilation):

Download Visual Studio Build Tools
Install with "Desktop development with C++" workload
Ensure the following components are selected:
- MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools
- Windows 10/11 SDK
- C++ CMake tools for Windows

WebView2 (required for Tauri):

Windows 11: Pre-installed
Windows 10: Download WebView2 Runtime

macOS

Xcode Command Line Tools:

xcode-select --install

Linux

Build Dependencies:

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y \
    libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
    build-essential \
    curl \
    wget \
    file \
    libssl-dev \
    libgtk-3-dev \
    libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
    librsvg2-dev

Fedora:

sudo dnf install \
    webkit2gtk4.1-devel \
    openssl-devel \
    curl \
    wget \
    file \
    gtk3-devel \
    libappindicator-gtk3-devel \
    librsvg2-devel

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S \
    webkit2gtk \
    base-devel \
    curl \
    wget \
    file \
    openssl \
    gtk3 \
    libappindicator-gtk3 \
    librsvg

Installing Obfussor

Method 1: Clone from GitHub

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/matrixbytes/Obfussor.git

# Navigate to the directory
cd Obfussor

# Install dependencies
bun install

# Verify installation
bun ng version
cargo tauri info

Method 2: Download Release Binary

Visit GitHub Releases
Download the latest release for your platform:
- Windows: Obfussor-{version}-x64-setup.exe
- macOS: Obfussor-{version}-x64.dmg or Obfussor-{version}-aarch64.dmg
- Linux: Obfussor-{version}-amd64.AppImage or .deb/.rpm
Install following platform-specific instructions

Post-Installation Verification

Verify all components are correctly installed:

# Check Node.js
node --version  # Should be >= 18.0.0

# Check Bun
bun --version

# Check Rust
rustc --version
cargo --version

# Check Tauri
cargo tauri --version

# Check LLVM
llvm-config --version  # Should be >= 14.0

# Check Clang
clang --version

Building from Source

If you cloned from GitHub, build Obfussor:

# Development build
cargo tauri dev

# Production build
cargo tauri build

The production build will create installers in:

Windows: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/msi/ or src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis/
macOS: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/dmg/ or src-tauri/target/release/bundle/macos/
Linux: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/appimage/ or src-tauri/target/release/bundle/deb/

Environment Configuration

Setting up LLVM Environment Variables

Windows:

# Add to System Environment Variables
setx LLVM_SYS_140_PREFIX "C:\Program Files\LLVM"
setx PATH "%PATH%;C:\Program Files\LLVM\bin"

macOS/Linux:

# Add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
export LLVM_SYS_140_PREFIX="/usr/local/opt/llvm"
export PATH="/usr/local/opt/llvm/bin:$PATH"

# Apply changes
source ~/.zshrc  # or source ~/.bashrc

Rust Environment

Ensure Rust environment is properly configured:

# Verify cargo is in PATH
which cargo

# If not found, add to PATH
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Troubleshooting Installation Issues

Common Problems

1. Bun Installation Fails on Windows

Error: PowerShell execution policy prevents installation

Solution:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

2. Rust/Cargo Not Found

Error: cargo: command not found

Solution:

Restart terminal
Manually add to PATH: $HOME/.cargo/bin (Unix) or %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin (Windows)
Re-run Rust installer

3. LLVM Not Found

Error: could not find native static library 'LLVM'

Solution:

# Verify LLVM is installed
llvm-config --version

# Set LLVM_SYS_140_PREFIX environment variable
export LLVM_SYS_140_PREFIX=$(llvm-config --prefix)

# Try installation again

4. WebKit2GTK Missing (Linux)

Error: Package webkit2gtk-4.1 was not found

Solution:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev

# Older systems may need webkit2gtk-4.0:
sudo apt-get install libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev

5. Tauri CLI Installation Fails

Error: Compilation errors during cargo install tauri-cli

Solution:

# Update Rust
rustup update

# Install with specific version
cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2.0"

# Windows: Ensure Visual Studio Build Tools are installed

Getting Help

If you encounter issues not covered here:

Check Troubleshooting Guide
Review GitHub Issues
Consult Tauri Prerequisites
Open a new issue with detailed error messages

Next Steps

Once installation is complete:

Quick Start Guide: Learn to obfuscate your first program
Configuration: Understand configuration options
LLVM Overview: Learn about LLVM fundamentals

Congratulations! You now have Obfussor installed and ready to use.

Obfussor Documentation