PAR::FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions about PAR
This is the Frequently Asked Questions list for the Perl Archive Toolkit. You can edit this document at http://par.perl.org/?FAQ online.
Do this in the module directory:
% make clean % parl -p
You may also digitally sign the generated .par file:
% parl -s
PAR::Dist expects to find your MANIFEST in the current directory, and uses Module::Signature to (optionally) sign the newly generated PAR.
The .par file can be uploaded to CPAN along with your module's .tar.gz file. Users of your module can then install from CPAN with a single command:
% parl -i cpan://PAUSEID/DISTNAME-0.01
Where PAUSEID is your PAUSE ID, and DISTNAME is your module's distribution name (eg. Acme-FooBar).
PAUSEID
DISTNAME
Acme-FooBar
Comment out the line that starts with unless (caller), and compile it again. Note that this is considered a bug; clearing the caller stack is a development in progress.
unless (caller)
link error: /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lperl
make
You need to install the libperl-dev package.
Alternatively, create a symbolic link from libperl.so.5.6.1 to libperl.so in /usr/lib:
% cd /usr/lib; ln -s libperl.so.5.6.1 libperl.so
and re-run the make step of the installation.
--icon
Unlike Perl2EXE, which can use a standard 16-color bitmap as an application icon, PAR requires a true Windows icon file. Download a trial version of Microangelo (http://www.microangelo.us/) and use that to create your .ico file.
The latest Netpbm tools at http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/ has ppmtowinicon, which can tack a pbm and convert it to a windows icon. It is open source and has win32 ports.
zip -r
As pointed out by Alan Stewart, zip adds a directory entry for the new directory, and it causes the PAR executable to fail.
Just use this :
zip -r -D hello.par my_dir/
or the Archive::Zip::addTree as follows :
$zip->addTree( $root, $dest, sub { -f } )
PAR version 0.81 and above supports adding whole directories with pp -A, so you do not normally need to add directories this way.
pp -A
Win32 (with VC++ or MinGW), FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux, MacOSX, Cygwin, AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, Tru64.
The resulting executable will run on any platforms that supports the binary format of the generating platform.
In other words, "I did a pp foo.pl and I lost foo.pl, how do I get it back?".
pp foo.pl
The answer is to just use unzip/winzip/winrar/whatever to decompress the executable, treating it like a normal Zip file. You may need to rename the executable into a .zip extension first.
Not completely, but possible to a degree. PAR supports an input filter mechanism via pp -f and pp -F (see PAR::Filter), which can be used to implement source obfuscators (or even product activation schemes).
pp -f
pp -F
But if you are looking for 100% bulletproof way of hiding source code, it is not possible with any language. Learning Perl, 3rd Edition has this answer to offer (quoted with permission from Randal Schwartz):
If you're wishing for an opaque binary, though, we have to tell you that they don't exist. If someone can install and run your program, they can turn it back into source code. Granted, this won't necessarily be the same source that you started with, but it will be some kind of source code. The real way to keep your secret algorithm a secret is, alas, to apply the proper number of attorneys; they can write a license that says "you can do this with the code, but you can't do that. And if you break our rules, we've got the proper number of attorneys to ensure that you'll regret it."
On Microsoft Windows, start your script with
use strict; use Encode::Unicode; use Tk;
Some widgets use xbm bitmaps which don't get picked up by PAR. The error is:
couldn't read bitmap file "": No such file or directory at Tk/Widget.pm line 203 error reading bitmap file "" at Tk/Widget.pm line 205.
Fix is to find the missing xbm files (perl -V tells you where to start looking), copy them to the script directory, and add them to the executable:
perl -V
pp -a cbxarrow.xbm -a arrowdownwin.xbm -o test test.pl
Note that this problem should only happen if the perl version of both programs are binary-incompatible.
When running on a Win32 system, if a perl script is packed with pp and invokes another Perl script or pp packed executable, either with system() or backticks, the invoked program runs with the copy of perl5x.dll already loaded into memory.
system()
If the calling executable was packed with pp -d, the perl5x.dll is the one from the installed perl bin directory. Otherwise, it is the one packed with the executable.
pp -d
The perl5x.dll from the bin dir knows the @INC paths for the installed libraries; the one in the executable does not. Because of this, a program packed without -d calling a program with packed with -d or calling perl.exe to run a plain Perl script may fail. This is a Win32 limitation.
@INC
-d
Use the pp --gui option, like this:
pp --gui
% pp --gui -o file.exe file.pl
Use the pp --icon option, like this:
pp --icon
% pp --icon "c:\path\to\MyIcon.ico" -o file.exe file.pl
pp
par.exe has encountered a problem
This bug has been be fixed. The following answer applies to PAR 0.76 and earlier:
You may be able to escape this problem by setting some executables to Windows 95 compatibility mode. Specifically, find parl.exe (probably in C:\perl\5.8.0\bin) using Windows Explorer, and right-click on it and choose Properties. Choose the "Compatibility" tab and tick the box for Run this program with compatibility mode for and check that the dropdown shows Windows 95. Then click OK.
Properties
Run this program with compatibility mode for
Windows 95
Now you can hopefully run pp as normal to generate an EXE. Before you can run the generated EXE, you'll need to set its compatibility mode too, in the same way as you did for parl.exe.
This bug has been be fixed. The following answer applies to PAR 0.79 and earlier:
With a script my.pl using Win32::Perms, running pp -o my.exe my.pl may produce this:
pp -o my.exe my.pl
Can't locate loadable object for module Win32::Perms in @INC (@INC contains: CODE(0xb97eec) CODE(0xc8a99c) .) at ../blib/lib/PAR/Heavy.pm line 78
In fact the dll is Perms.DLL wit DLL in capital letters. That's the problem. The bootstrap function of PAR in the Dynaloader module fails looking for Perms.dll in the table of dlls which contains only Perms.DLL.
And so the solution is just rename Perms.DLL to Perms.dll and do pp -o my.exe my.pl again... and everything goes right!
PAR, PAR::Tutorial
Autrijus Tang <autrijus@autrijus.org>
http://par.perl.org/ is the official PAR website. You can write to the mailing list at <par@perl.org>, or send an empty mail to <par-subscribe@perl.org> to participate in the discussion.
Please submit bug reports to <bug-par@rt.cpan.org>.
Copyright 2003, 2004, 2005 by Autrijus Tang <autrijus@autrijus.org>.
This document is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html
To install PAR, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm PAR
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install PAR
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.