PAR(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PAR(1)NAMEpar.pl - Make and run Perl Archives
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:
% par.pl-p # make a PAR dist under the current path
% par.pl-p Foo-0.01 # assume unpacked CPAN dist in Foo-0.01/
To manipulate a PAR distribution:
% par.pl-i Foo-0.01-i386-freebsd-5.8.0.par # install
% par.pl-i http://foo.com/Foo-0.01 # auto-appends archname + perlver
% par.pl-i cpan://AUTRIJUS/PAR-0.74 # uses CPAN author directory
% par.pl-u Foo-0.01-i386-freebsd-5.8.0.par # uninstall
% par.pl-s Foo-0.01-i386-freebsd-5.8.0.par # sign
% par.pl-v Foo-0.01-i386-freebsd-5.8.0.par # verify
To use Hello.pm from ./foo.par:
% par.pl -A./foo.par -MHello
% par.pl -A./foo -MHello # the .par part is optional
Same thing, but search foo.par in the @INC;
% par.pl-Ifoo.par -MHello
% par.pl-Ifoo -MHello # ditto
Run test.pl or script/test.pl from foo.par:
% par.pl foo.par test.pl # looks for 'main.pl' by default,
# otherwise run 'test.pl'
To make a self-containing script containing a PAR file :
% par.pl -O./foo.pl foo.par
% ./foo.pl 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:
% par.pl-b -O./foo.pl foo.par
% ./foo.pl test.pl # runs anywhere with core modules installed
If you also wish to embed core modules along, use the -B flag instead:
% par.pl-B -O./foo.pl foo.par
% ./foo.pl 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 distri-
bution, as well as manipulate such distributions. For more information
about PAR distributions, see PAR::Dist.
Binary PAR loader (parl)
If you have a C compiler, or a pre-built binary package of PAR is
available for your platform, a binary version of par.pl will also be
automatically installed as parl. 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
Stand-alone executable format
The format for the stand-alone executable is simply concatenating the
following elements:
* The executable itself
Either in plain-text (par.pl) or native executable format (parl or
parl.exe).
* Any number of embedded files
These are typically used for bootstrapping PAR's various XS depen-
dencies. Each section contains:
The magic string ""FILE""
Length of file name in "pack('N')" format plus 9
8 bytes of hex-encoded CRC32 of file content
A single slash (""/"")
The file name (without path)
File length in "pack('N')" format
The file's content (not compressed)
* One PAR file
This is just a zip file beginning with the magic string
""PK\003\004"".
* Ending section
The pre-computed cache name. A pack('Z40') string of the value of
-T (--tempcache) or the hash of the file, followed by "\0CACHE".
The hash of the file is calculated with Digest::SHA, Digest::SHA1,
or Digest::MD5. If none of those modules is available, the "mtime"
of the file is used.
A pack('N') number of the total length of FILE and PAR sections,
followed by a 8-bytes magic string: ""\012PAR.pm\012"".
SEE ALSO
PAR, PAR::Dist, parl, pp
AUTHORS
Audrey Tang <cpan@audreyt.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-sub-
scribe@perl.org> to participate in the discussion.
Please submit bug reports to <bug-par@rt.cpan.org>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 by Audrey Tang
<cpan@audreyt.org>.
Neither this program nor the associated parl program impose any licens-
ing 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 result-
ing 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>
perl v5.8.8 2006-05-30 PAR(1)
