NAME
Perl::Visualize (like Perl only prettier)
VERSION
This document describes version 1.0 of Perl::Visualize, released June 20, 2003.
SYNOPSIS
# In program
use Perl::Visualize qw/etch paint/;
etch "larry.gif", "larrysig.gif", 'print "This is Larry Wall\n"';
etch "nagra.gif", "nagraview.gif", 'exec "/usr/bin/display $0"';
paint "damian.gif", "poetic-damian.gif", <<EOF;
use Coy;
Recite war "poetry";
EOF
# Sometime later
bash$ perl larrysig.gif
This is Larry WallDESCRIPTION
Overview
Perl::Visualize generates GIF/Perl polyglots. A polyglot is a program that can be validly executed by multiple interpreters. Usually, polyglots are written in multiple programming languages - Perl::Visualize is slightly different in that one of the languages being generated is GIF - a format ordinarily used to encode images.
API
The Perl::Visualize module has two methods in its external interface: paint and etch. Each of these methods takes the name of a GIF file as input, the name of a GIF file to output and a string containing the Perl code to embed.
paint $inputfile, $outputfile, $code
etch $inputfile, $outputfile, $codeThe two methods are functionally equivalent - the difference is merely the technique used to embed perl in the GIF image as described in a later section.
EXAMPLES
Marquee de World
Let's begin by paying homage to several decades of computer science and writing our Hello World program. We select a suitable image and embed a trivial perl program in it using the following snippet:
#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Perl::Visualize qw/etch/;
etch("world.gif", "helloworld.gif", 'print "Hello Spinning World\n"' );
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+ |
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= |
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Original image http://search.cpan.org/src/JNAGRA/Perl-Visualize-1.02/examples/world.gif
Polyglot image http://search.cpan.org/src/JNAGRA/Perl-Visualize-1.02/examples/helloworld.gif
This results in a valid GIF file can be directly executed by the perl interpreter simply by calling perl helloworld.gif or viewed in any GIF browser.
I See Perl
Source code sometimes fails to capture the underlying design of a perl program. With Perl::Visualize, you have the option of distributing an executable but clearly annotated picture of your source code instead. In order to create a visual view of a Perl program, we use the very clever Devel::GraphVizProf module - a profiling tool and GraphViz - a graph drawing package from AT&T.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Perl::Visualize qw/paint/;
my $program = "fibo";
`perl -d:GraphVizProf $program.pl | dot -Tgif -o $program.gif`;
open CODE, "<$program.pl" or die "Could not open $program.pl: $@";
my(@lines) = <CODE>;
close CODE;
paint "$program.gif", "$program.gif", join '',@lines;
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+ |
sub fib {
my($howmany, $n1, $n2) = @_;
my(@result);
if ( $howmany > 0 ) {
push @result, $n1+$n2, fib($howmany-1, $n2, $n1+$n2);
}
return @result;
}
fib(10,1,1);
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Original image http://search.cpan.org/src/JNAGRA/Perl-Visualize-1.02/examples/fibo.gif
Embedded code http://search.cpan.org/src/JNAGRA/Perl-Visualize-1.02/examples/fibo.pl
Polyglot image http://search.cpan.org/src/JNAGRA/Perl-Visualize-1.02/examples/v-fibo.gif
The Art of Computer Programs
Piet is a programming language in which programs look like abstract paintings. A complete description of the language can be found at http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/piet.html. There is a module Piet::Interpreter that executes Piet. We can use Perl::Visualize and this module to make Piet programs directly executable using perl.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Perl::Visualize;
die "Usage: piet pietprogram.gif codel_size" unless $#ARGV == 1 ;
my($program, $codel) = @ARGV;
Perl::Visualize::paint($program,"v-$program", <<EOF );
use Piet::Interpreter;
my \$p = Piet::Interpreter->new(image => \$0, codel_size=>"$codel");
\$p->run;
EOF
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+ |
use Piet::Interpreter;
my $p = Piet::Interpreter->new( image => $0,
codel_size => 16);
$p->run;
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= |
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Original image http://search.cpan.org/src/JNAGRA/Perl-Visualize-1.02/examples/piet.gif
Polyglot image http://search.cpan.org/src/JNAGRA/Perl-Visualize-1.02/examples/v-piet.gif
Note that the program we embed is very simple. It simply calls the Piet::Interpreter with itself ($0) as the argument. This example is interesting because it actually interprets the same GIF file twice - and in two different ways. The first time the GIF file is interpreted as a perl program by the perl interpreter. This causes the embedded perl code to execute which in turn calls the Piet interpreter. The Piet interpreter then reads the GIF file again - but this time it considers the actual image in the GIF file and interprets that according to the rules of Piet.
The examples that we have looked at so far do not require Perl::Visualize to be installed in order for it to be run once the GIF files have been generated - indeed the resulting GIF files are as portable as perl. The next example we look at does require Perl::Visualize to be installed because we generate executable images on the fly.
Yet Another 99 Bottles of Beer and the Wall
Printing out the hundred stanzas of "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall" song is another common example of programming tradition. Over 550 ways of printing out this song has been recorded in over 100 programming languages and archived at http://99-bottles-of-beer.ls-la.net. For our piece de resistance, we will write a self replicating version of the "99 bottles of beer" program. But because it is sometimes difficult to understand just how much beer that is, we will write our program as a executable self replicating image using Perl::Visualize.
Instead of producing the entire song at once we will design our program so that every time it is run it will print out a verse of the song. It will then modify itself so that it is primed for the next verse. Further more, we would like its picture representation to reflect the number of bottles of beer currently on the wall.
Let us start with the easiest problem - that of printing out each stanza.
sub printMessage {
my($number) = @_;
my($prev) = $number+1;
$number = $number < 1 ? "No bottles"
: $number == 1 ? "1 bottle"
: "$number bottles";
$prev = $prev < 1 ? "No bottles"
: $prev == 1 ? "1 bottle"
: "$prev bottles";
print <<BOTTLES;
$prev of beer on the wall
$prev of beer on the wall
Take one down dash it to the ground
$number of beer on the wall
BOTTLES
}This subroutine prints out one verse of the song given the number of bottles that remain. Next we need some code to produce a picture of a wall with beer bottles on it. For this we will use, Image::Magick. Image::Magick is a toolkit for editing a large variety of image formats programmatically. We will use it to generate our GIF images on the fly.
sub drawWall {
my($image, $width,$height) = @_;
for my $y ( 0..3 ) {
for my $x ( 0..($width/10) ) {
my $warn = $image->Draw ( primitive=>'Rectangle',
points=>"@{[($x - ($y%2)*.5)*10]},
@{[$height - $y*5]}
@{[($x - ($y%2)*.5)*10 + 10]},
@{[ $height - $y*5 - 5]}",
fill=>'red' );
warn $warn if $warn;
}
}
}
sub drawBottle {
my($image, $x,$y) = @_;
my $warn = $image->Draw ( primitive=>'Rectangle',
points=>"$x,$y
@{[$x+5]},@{[$y-10]}",
fill=>'brown');
warn $warn if $warn;
my $warn = $image->Draw ( primitive=>'Polygon',
points=>"@{[$x+2]},@{[$y-13]}
$x,@{[$y-10]}
@{[$x+5]},@{[$y-10]}
@{[$x+3]},@{[$y-13]}
@{[$x+5]},@{[$y-10]}" );
warn $warn if $warn;
}
sub drawBottles {
my($bottles, $image, $width,$height) = @_;
for my $bottle_number ( 1..$bottles ) {
my $x = ($bottle_number + .5 ) * $width / ($bottles+2);
drawBottle $image, $x, $height - 20;
}
}Now for the crucial part. We need to make the program have access to its own source. Note however that the source will in fact be embedded inside a GIF so we cannot necessarily simply open ourselves as a file in an attempt to copy and edit our contents. Instead we will use techniques for writing quines to embed the source code in the program itself. We embed most of the code as a string in $_, eval it then we edit $_ so that it is initialized for one less beer bottle. Finally, we embed the edited $_ in a GIF file.
#!/usr/bin/perl
$_=<<'CODE';
use strict;
use Perl::Visualize;
use Image::Magick;
sub printMessage {...}
sub drawWall {...}
sub drawBottle {...}
sub drawBottles {...}
my $width = 600;
my $height = 100;
my $bottles = 5;
my $image = Image::Magick->new(size=>"${width}x$height");
my $warn;
$image->ReadImage('xc:white');
printMessage $bottles;
drawWall($image, $width, $height);
drawBottles($bottles, $image, $width, $height);
$warn = $image->Write('99.gif');
warn $warn if $warn;
__END__
eval $_;
s/^(my \$bottles = )(\d+)/$1.($2?$2-1:$2)/em;
m/^__END__(.*)/ms;
Perl::Visualize::paint ( '99.gif', '99.gif', "\$_=<<'CODE';\n${_}CODE".$1);
CODE
eval $_;
s/^(my \$bottles = )(\d+)/$1.($2?$2-1:$2)/em;
m/^__END__(.*)/ms;
Perl::Visualize::paint ( '99.gif', '99.gif', "\$_=<<'CODE';\n${_}CODE".$1);Polyglot image http://search.cpan.org/src/JNAGRA/Perl-Visualize-1.02/examples/99.gif
HOW IT ALL WORKS
The choice of GIF as the image format to use was mostly in response to a challenge that it could not be done. Certainly, several other image formats appear to be lend themselves more easily to being made into polyglots. In particular, it is worth noting that PBM and XPM image formats - because of their ASCII like headers, end of line conventions and use of # to introduce comments - are almost trivial to use to embed polyglots, not merely using Perl, but also in C, Python and a handful of other languages.
In fact the first image polyglots the author created were perl embedded in black and white XPM images. However, neither the XPM not PBM formats are particularly prolific except on Unix platforms. They are also generally quite large and used more as an intermediate language than a target language. Much more importantly, making image polyglots is almost entirely a recreational exercise and only worth doing if there at least a few challenges along the way.
GIF file format
The GIF file format was originally proposed in 1989 by Unisys as a way of reducing the amount of bandwidth taken up by image transfers. Several aspects of the encoding was controlled by a patent - one which with some jubilation expired on 20 June, 2003.
In order to successfully build a polyglot we have to be able to shift gears mentally between programming in Perl and maintaining consistency with the GIF specification. The GIF standard is very particular about the order and interpretation of every byte in the header of a GIF file. Since perl is comparatively more lenient, let us being with a GIF file and try to alter it into also being a valid perl program. We begin by taking a look at a few lines of a GIF image:
00000000: 4749 4638 3961 3000 3000 e300 0000 0000 GIF89a0.0.......
00000010: abab ab99 9999 4545 45de dede 2121 21cc ......EEE...!!!.
00000020: cccc 7878 7866 6666 5454 54ed eded 1212 ..xxxfffTTT.....
00000030: 12bf bfbf 0000 0000 0000 0000 0021 f904 .............!..
00000040: 0100 000c 002c 0000 0000 3000 3000 0004 .....,....0.0...
.
.
.
00000240: 0bb1 966e cec8 0746 392d 4f25 f7e8 2bd7 ...n...F9-O%..+.
00000250: 8c40 cde0 8705 216f 6c12 4923 bf28 c1c0 .@....!ol.I#.(..
00000260: 4b01 c6a1 5f83 0ee2 239d 218d 34e3 8c83 K..._...#.!.4...
00000270: 5e99 a7d0 72ac fd30 4204 003b ^...r..0B..;Comparing this against the GIF specification, it is easy to decode the various fields.
G I F Marks the beginning of a GIF file
8 9 a Identifies the version of this file format. Later
version have extensions to the file format. In
particular, version 89a introduced comment blocks,
text blocks and application blocks.
0x30 0x00 0x30 0x00 Specifies the logical screen width and
height stored in little endian format. This
image, for example, is has a width of 0x0030 and a
height of 0x0030 - that is it is 48 by 48 pixels.
0xe3 The first bit indicates the presence of a
color table, the next three bits indicate the
resolution of the image, the fifth bit
indicates whether the color table is ordered
and the final three bits indicate the size of
the color table.
0x00 Index into the color table that identifies the
background color.
0x00 Ratio of pixel width to height.
0x02 0x02 0x02 ... Colors in the color table. There are 3 * 2 ^
(size of color table + 1) entries in the color
tableMaking code not code
The standard trick in a polyglots toolbox when embedding one language in another, is to use operators that are comment indicators in one language but have meaning in other. When embedding perl in C++ for example, we have the option of using the "//" characters. In C++ this would make the rest of the line a comment and thus be ignored by a C++ compiler while perl would treat it as a valid regex and continue to execute code that occurs after this.
Perl comments are introduced using a "#" character which makes the perl interpreter ignore the rest of the line. In fact, in perl, we have a second mechanism to make the compiler ignore sections of the source. First we note that when running without warnings, perl will automagically quote barewords - that is unquoted strings without any spaces are automatically quoted. Secondly, a statement that consists solely of a string is valid statement equivalent to a NOP (no-op).
This means, for instance, that the following is in fact a valid perl program!
$ cat nop.pl
The_rain_in_Spain_falls_mainly_down_a_drain
$We can use the B::Deparse module to see how the perl interprets this piece of code.
$ perl -MO=Deparse nop.pl
'???';
$Embedding Perl
Armed with these two tricks, let us approach our GIF header once more. Notice that if we alter the first byte of the logical screen width to 0x3b (ASCII ";"), then we have our first valid line of perl - namely "GIF89a". This as we discussed earlier is a bareword and thus a NOP in perl. Also, we can do this safely because the GIF standard specifies that the logical screen width merely defines the largest image that can be displayed. Each actual image in a GIF file (defined further in the file) carries its own size.
Note that at this point, we have set only the lower byte of the two byte logical screen width. We would like to cause perl to continue to skip interpreting bytes until such a point where we can begin inserting perl code without interfering with the rather strict specifications of the GIF format. We can do this either by setting the higher byte of the logical screen width to 0x23 (ASCII "#") thus inserting a comment indicator and ensuring there are no end of line characters till we are ready, or by introducing a string.
Before we decide which of these two equally valid techniques to use, let us decide where we will embed the actual perl code that we would like to interpret. The GIF standard is designed to be backward compatible and extensible in the sense that blocks with markers that are not recognized by a program are simply ignored. We could choose to use this fact and introduce an unimplemented block code which would thus be ignored by GIF viewers. Alternatively, we could choose to embed our program in the standard GIF comments section. Perl::Visualize uses currently uses this second option which has the added advantage that on many image viewers, the comments embedded in a GIF file can be displayed either by moving the mouse over the image or by some other means giving the user the opportunity to see the program that is embedded in the image.
Perl::Visualize allows the user to use either of the embedding tricks we have described. The paint function uses the strings technique (because painting is done with a stringed instrument) while the etch function uses the comment technique (because etching is done using a sharp(#) tool. Ahem). Both of these techniques cause perl to skip over the remainder of the logical screen specification and the color table as well as the first two bytes that indicate the start of a GIF comment as described next.
GIF Comments
GIF comments are stored in a section marked by 0x21 0xfe. Comments consist of a series of Pascal style strings - that is a sequence of characters preceded by a byte containing the length of the string. The comments section is terminated by an empty string.
At this point, it is probably very clearly how to achieve the remainder of our task. We have so far been able to make perl skip over the GIF header and begin executing the code found in the GIF comment section. Simultaneously, we have managed to preserve the original image except for altering it logical width and height and introducing a new comment block. These are arguably semantic preserving transformations on the image. We need to finish inserting the remainder of perl code, terminate the GIF comment section and leave the rest of the GIF image alone.
The only real complication that remains to be handled is that the Pascal styled strings introduce a extraneous byte at the beginning of every embedded string. We can manage this final hurdle by not introducing extraneous length bytes but instead treating some of the existing characters in the code we are embedding as length bytes. This is best understood by example. Suppose we have are embedding a Perl string:
'!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'We can consider this a sequence of Pascal strings by repeatedly reading a length byte then as many bytes as indicated by that length giving us:
Length=0x21 (ASCII '!') '"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@AB'
Length=0x43 (ASCII 'C') 'DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ...'Note that the second string is now "incomplete". Since these will be statements in Perl, we can probably safely pad the last statement string using spaces.
Finally, we need to terminate the execution of perl so that the rest of image bytes are ignored. We can do this appending "\n__END__\n" or control characters ^Z or ^D to the Perl code before embedding it. Following this we insert a blank Pascal string, 0x00 to end the GIF comment section.
And we are done.
SEE ALSO
http://www.nyx.net/~gthompso/poly/polyglot.htm
BUGS
Yes.
Not all programs can be embedded. In particular, embedding programs that rely on their own structure to function correctly cannot be embedded - for example Acme::Bleach'ed programs are not correctly embedded.
Bug reports and patches gratefully accepted
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Christian Collberg for not dissuading me from writing this module. :-)
AUTHOR
Jasvir Nagra http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~jas
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (c) 2003, Jasvir Nagra. All Rights Reserved.
This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed
and/or modified under the terms of the Perl Artistic License
(see http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html)