parl - Binary PAR Loader

(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 CWZlib, CWIO, CWCwd, 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.

This stand-alone command offers roughly the same feature as CWperl -MPAR, except that it takes the pre-loaded .par files via CW-Afoo.par instead of CW-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 CW-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 CW--par-options flag, generated binaries can act as CWparl 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.

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

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 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 by Autrijus Tang <autrijus@autrijus.org>.

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 <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>