Plugin Dissector Compilation Error “request for implicit conversion .."

Question

I'm trying to test a dissector plug in for wireshark in Linux by following these steps. When I use sudo make -C plugins, I get several similar compilation errors say that MySourceFileDissectorName.c: In function 'X': MySourceFileDissectorName.c:990:11: error: request for implicit conversion from 'gpointer' to 'some struct data type *' not permitted in C++ [-Werror=c++-compat] .... etc.

I've no idea what the cause of the error or how can I resolve it. Any ideas or hints!

Thanks in advance!

Accepted Answer

The cause of the error is that

C++, unlike C, does not allow void * (gpointer is a GLib alias for void *) to be cast to another type value without a case;
we want to make sure our C code can be compiled by C++ compilers;

so we build the code with "-Werror=c++-compat".

You resolve it by doing

void *foo;
struct hello *bar;
...

bar = (struct hello *)foo;

rather than

void *foo;
struct hello *bar;
...

bar = foo;