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 <cpan@audreyt.org>

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-packer@rt.cpan.org>.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2002-2009 by Audrey Tang <cpan@audreyt.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 LICENSE.