SonarSniffer

Professional Sidescan Sonar Processing & Mosaic Engine
NautiDog Sailing

SonarSniffer parses Garmin RSD, Lowrance SL2/SL3, Humminbird DAT, XTF, JSF, and Cerulean sonar files. It produces geo-referenced mosaic imagery, enhanced video exports, MBTiles, KML/KMZ overlays, and ArcGIS-compatible outputs.

Video export uses a built-in pure-Rust AV1/MP4 encoder (rav1e). GStreamer is not required for normal use.

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Downloads

Latest desktop (0.8.22): GitHub Release v0.8.22 · mirror cesarops.com/downloads/sonarsniffer

Pre-built artifacts are published on GitHub Releases when you tag v* (CI builds automatically).

Artifact	Platform	Use case
SonarSniffer-Setup.exe	Windows	Recommended one-file installer (prereqs + MSI + CLIs)
SonarSniffer_*_x64_en-US.msi	Windows	Tauri desktop app (msiexec / Programs and Features)
SonarSniffer_*_x64-setup.exe	Windows	NSIS desktop installer (Tauri bundle)
SonarSniffer.exe	Windows	Portable desktop binary (no installer)
SonarSniffer-Windows-CLI-x64.zip	Windows	CLI only (sonarsniffer-cli, parse_cli, UI assets)
SonarSniffer-macOS-CLI-x64.zip	macOS	CLI only
SonarSniffer_*.dmg	macOS	Desktop app (Tauri)

From 0.8.22 the desktop binary is SonarSniffer.exe (Tauri mainBinaryName). Prefer Start Menu / %LOCALAPPDATA%\SonarSniffer\SonarSniffer.exe over any stale portable under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\SonarSniffer\ (often old 0.77.5).

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Installation

Windows — SonarSniffer-Setup.exe (recommended)

1. Download SonarSniffer-Setup.exe from Releases (or cesarops.com).
2. Run as Administrator (UAC prompt).
3. The bootstrap installs WebView2 / VC++ if missing, then the MSI desktop app and CLI tools.
4. Launch from Start Menu → SonarSniffer, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\SonarSniffer\SonarSniffer.exe.

Windows — MSI (SonarSniffer_*_x64_en-US.msi)

1. Download the MSI from Releases.
2. Double-click, or: msiexec /i SonarSniffer_0.8.22_x64_en-US.msi
3. Requires WebView2 (Microsoft) — usually already on Windows 10/11.
4. App installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\SonarSniffer\ as SonarSniffer.exe. Exit code 3010 means success with a deferred reboot — the app is usable.

Windows — NSIS (SonarSniffer_*_x64-setup.exe)

1. Download the NSIS setup from Releases (Tauri NSIS bundle).
2. Run the installer and follow the wizard.
3. Launch via Start Menu shortcut → SonarSniffer.exe.
4. Use this when you want the Tauri-native installer without the full Setup.exe prereq bootstrap.

Windows — portable SonarSniffer.exe

1. Download SonarSniffer.exe from Releases (or the versioned folder on cesarops.com).
2. Place it in any folder (e.g. C:\Tools\SonarSniffer\) and run it.
3. Still needs WebView2 on the machine. No Start Menu / uninstall entry.
4. Do not keep running an old copy under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\SonarSniffer\ if you also installed via Setup/MSI.

Windows / macOS — CLI zip

Windows

1. Download SonarSniffer-Windows-CLI-x64.zip from Releases.
2. Extract to a folder, e.g. C:\SonarSniffer\.
3. Open PowerShell or Command Prompt in that folder.

macOS

1. Download SonarSniffer-macOS-CLI-x64.zip.
2. Extract: unzip SonarSniffer-macOS-CLI-x64.zip -d ~/SonarSniffer
3. Make executable: chmod +x ~/SonarSniffer/sonarsniffer-cli ~/SonarSniffer/parse_cli
4. On first run, macOS may block the binary — System Settings → Privacy & Security → Allow.

No extra runtime is needed for --video (AV1 is built in).

macOS — desktop DMG

1. Download SonarSniffer_*.dmg from Releases.
2. Open the DMG and drag SonarSniffer to Applications.
3. First launch: right-click → Open if Gatekeeper blocks the app.

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Usage

Quick parse (inspect a sonar file)

parse_cli /path/to/file.RSD

Outputs: channel discovery, ping counts, firmware detection, GPS coverage.

Full pipeline (mosaic + video + all outputs)

sonarsniffer-cli /path/to/file.RSD --video --mosaic --curvelet --colormap amber

Options

Flag	Description
--video	Export enhanced AV1/MP4 video (built-in encoder)
--mosaic	Generate geo-referenced mosaic PNGs
--curvelet	Apply curvelet denoising
--soundtiles	Run SoundTiles feature alignment
--colormap <name>	amber, sonar, viridis, magma, inferno, plasma, ocean, iron, jet, grayscale
--output <dir>	Override output directory
--kml	Export KML ground overlay
--kmz	Export KMZ package
--mbtiles	Export MBTiles tileset
--arcgis	Export ArcGIS-compatible GeoTIFF

Supported formats

• Garmin RSD — GT54, GT56, UHD, UHD2, Classic, LiveScope
• Lowrance SL2/SL3 — Primary, Downscan, Sidescan
• Humminbird DAT — Side imaging, down imaging
• XTF — Extended Triton Format (survey-grade)
• JSF — EdgeTech JSF format
• Cerulean — Cerulean Sonar logs

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Build from source

Prerequisites

• Rust (stable)
• CLI: nothing else on Windows/macOS/Linux
• Desktop (Tauri 2):
  • cargo install tauri-cli --version "^2.0"
  • Windows: MSVC + WebView2 SDK (usually via Visual Studio Build Tools)
  • macOS: Xcode command-line tools
  • Linux: libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev, libgtk-3-dev, libayatana-appindicator3-dev, librsvg2-dev, libdbus-1-dev, pkg-config

GStreamer is optional — only if you build with --features video-gstreamer for legacy H.264.

CLI

Production flags are documented in docs/BUILD_FLAGS.md (--release --no-default-features; optional Linux --features jemalloc).

git clone https://github.com/festeraeb/SonarSniffer.git
cd SonarSniffer
# preferred helper (sets CARGO_TARGET_DIR=/data/cargo-target when present):
bash tools/prod_cargo_build.sh
# or:
cargo build --release --no-default-features --bin sonarsniffer-cli --bin parse_cli
# binaries: $CARGO_TARGET_DIR/release/sonarsniffer-cli, parse_cli

Branch	Build
master	tools/prod_cargo_build.sh / release CI
wasm	scripts/build_wasm.sh (wasm-pack --release --no-default-features)
ip	same Cargo flags as master + packed InstallAssist (LLM/self-heal)

Desktop app

Sidecar binaries (sonarsniffer-cli, parse_cli, soundtiles) must be staged before cargo tauri build:

Linux / macOS

bash tools/stage_tauri_sidecars.sh
cd desktop/src-tauri
cargo tauri build --bundles dmg    # macOS

Windows (PowerShell)

.\tools\publish.ps1 -Release
# or step-by-step:
.\tools\stage_tauri_sidecars.ps1
cd desktop\src-tauri
cargo tauri build --bundles msi,nsis

Windows one-file installer

After MSI/NSIS build:

.\scripts\pack_sonarsniffer_windows_setup.ps1
# => dist\SonarSniffer-Setup.exe

Release CI

Push a version tag to trigger the release workflow:

git tag v0.8.2
git push origin v0.8.2

CI builds CLI zips, Windows MSI/NSIS/Setup.exe, and macOS DMG, then attaches them to the GitHub Release.

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Desktop app features

• File browser and pipeline options
• Colormap picker with live previews
• Dependency checker (WebView2 on Windows; GStreamer optional legacy path)
• SoundTiles mosaic alignment (sidecar binary)
• License management

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License

Contact: nautik9@cesarops.com
Website: https://cesarops.com