parl - Binary PAR Loader

NAME  SYNOPSIS  DESCRIPTION  SEE ALSO  AUTHORS  COPYRIGHT 

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NAME

parl − Binary PAR Loader

SYNOPSIS

(Please see pp for convenient ways to make self-contained executables, scripts or PAR archives from perl programs.)

To make a PAR distribution from a CPAN module distribution:

% parl −p # make a PAR dist under the current path
% parl −p Foo−0.01 # assume unpacked CPAN dist in Foo−0.01/

To manipulate a PAR distribution:

% parl −i Foo−0.01−i386−freebsd−5.8.0.par # install
% parl −i http://foo.com/Foo−0.01 # auto−appends archname + perlver
% parl −i cpan://AUTRIJUS/PAR−0.74 # uses CPAN author directory
% parl −u Foo−0.01−i386−freebsd−5.8.0.par # uninstall
% parl −s Foo−0.01−i386−freebsd−5.8.0.par # sign
% parl −v Foo−0.01−i386−freebsd−5.8.0.par # verify

To use Hello.pm from ./foo.par:

% parl −A./foo.par −MHello
% parl −A./foo −MHello # the .par part is optional

Same thing, but search foo.par in the @INC;

% parl −Ifoo.par −MHello
% parl −Ifoo −MHello # ditto

Run test.pl or script/test.pl from foo.par:

% parl foo.par test.pl # looks for 'main.pl' by default,
# otherwise run 'test.pl'

To make a self-containing executable containing a PAR file :

% parl −O./foo foo.par
% ./foo test.pl # same as above

To embed the necessary non-core modules and shared objects for PAR’s execution (like "Zlib", "IO", "Cwd", etc), use the −b flag:

% parl −b −O./foo foo.par
% ./foo test.pl # runs anywhere with core modules installed

If you also wish to embed core modules along, use the −B flag instead:

% parl −B −O./foo foo.par
% ./foo test.pl # runs anywhere with the perl interpreter

This is particularly useful when making stand-alone binary executables; see pp for details.

DESCRIPTION

This stand-alone command offers roughly the same feature as "perl −MPAR", except that it takes the pre-loaded .par files via "−Afoo.par" instead of "−MPAR=foo.par".

Additionally, it lets you convert a CPAN distribution to a PAR distribution, as well as manipulate such distributions. For more information about PAR distributions, see PAR::Dist.

You can use it to run .par files:

# runs script/run.pl in archive, uses its lib/* as libraries
% parl myapp.par run.pl # runs run.pl or script/run.pl in myapp.par
% parl otherapp.pl # also runs normal perl scripts

However, if the .par archive contains either main.pl or script/main.pl, it is used instead:

% parl myapp.par run.pl # runs main.pl, with 'run.pl' as @ARGV

Finally, the "−O" option makes a stand-alone binary executable from a PAR file:

% parl −B −Omyapp myapp.par
% ./myapp # run it anywhere without perl binaries

With the "−−par−options" flag, generated binaries can act as "parl" to pack new binaries:

% ./myapp −−par−options −Omyap2 myapp.par # identical to ./myapp
% ./myapp −−par−options −Omyap3 myap3.par # now with different PAR

For an explanation of stand-alone executable format, please see par.pl.

SEE ALSO

PAR, PAR::Dist, par.pl, pp

AUTHORS

Audrey Tang <[email protected]>

You can write to the mailing list at <[email protected]>, or send an empty mail to <par−[email protected]> to participate in the discussion.

Please submit bug reports to <bug−par−[email protected]>.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2002−2009 by Audrey Tang <[email protected]>.

Neither this program nor the associated pp program impose any licensing restrictions on files generated by their execution, in accordance with the 8th article of the Artistic License:

"Aggregation of this Package with a commercial distribution is
always permitted provided that the use of this Package is embedded;
that is, when no overt attempt is made to make this Package's
interfaces visible to the end user of the commercial distribution.
Such use shall not be construed as a distribution of this Package."

Therefore, you are absolutely free to place any license on the resulting executable, as long as the packed 3rd−party libraries are also available under the Artistic License.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See LICENSE.

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