[ViewVC] Diff of: cvs/App-Staticperl/staticperl.pod

Comparing App-Staticperl/staticperl.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.7 by root, Mon Dec 6 21:21:44 2010 UTC vs.
Revision 1.16 by root, Wed Dec 8 23:03:21 2010 UTC

…		…
1	=head1 NAME	1	=head1 NAME
2		2
3	staticperl - perl, libc, 50 modules, all in one 500kb file	3	staticperl - perl, libc, 100 modules, all in one 500kb file
4		4
5	=head1 SYNOPSIS	5	=head1 SYNOPSIS
6		6
7	staticperl help # print the embedded documentation	7	staticperl help # print the embedded documentation
8	staticperl fetch # fetch and unpack perl sources	8	staticperl fetch # fetch and unpack perl sources
14	staticperl cpan # invoke CPAN shell	14	staticperl cpan # invoke CPAN shell
15	staticperl instmod path... # install unpacked modules	15	staticperl instmod path... # install unpacked modules
16	staticperl instcpan modulename... # install modules from CPAN	16	staticperl instcpan modulename... # install modules from CPAN
17	staticperl mkbundle <bundle-args...> # see documentation	17	staticperl mkbundle <bundle-args...> # see documentation
18	staticperl mkperl <bundle-args...> # see documentation	18	staticperl mkperl <bundle-args...> # see documentation
		19	staticperl mkapp appname <bundle-args...> # see documentation
19		20
20	Typical Examples:	21	Typical Examples:
21		22
22	staticperl install # fetch, configure, build and install perl	23	staticperl install # fetch, configure, build and install perl
23	staticperl cpan # run interactive cpan shell	24	staticperl cpan # run interactive cpan shell
24	staticperl mkperl -M '"Config_heavy.pl"' # build a perl that supports -V	25	staticperl mkperl -M '"Config_heavy.pl"' # build a perl that supports -V
25	staticperl mkperl -MAnyEvent::Impl::Perl -MAnyEvent::HTTPD -MURI -MURI::http	26	staticperl mkperl -MAnyEvent::Impl::Perl -MAnyEvent::HTTPD -MURI -MURI::http
26	# build a perl with the above modules linked in	27	# build a perl with the above modules linked in
		28	staticperl mkapp myapp --boot mainprog mymodules
		29	# build a binary "myapp" from mainprog and mymodules
27		30
28	=head1 DESCRIPTION	31	=head1 DESCRIPTION
29		32
30	This script helps you creating single-file perl interpreters, or embedding	33	This script helps you to create single-file perl interpreters
31	a perl interpreter in your applications. Single-file means that it is	34	or applications, or embedding a perl interpreter in your
32	fully self-contained - no separate shared objects, no autoload fragments,	35	applications. Single-file means that it is fully self-contained - no
33	no .pm or .pl files are needed. And when linking statically, you can	36	separate shared objects, no autoload fragments, no .pm or .pl files are
34	create (or embed) a single file that contains perl interpreter, libc, all	37	needed. And when linking statically, you can create (or embed) a single
35	the modules you need and all the libraries you need.	38	file that contains perl interpreter, libc, all the modules you need, all
		39	the libraries you need and of course your actual program.
36		40
37	With F<uClibc> and F<upx> on x86, you can create a single 500kb binary that	41	With F<uClibc> and F<upx> on x86, you can create a single 500kb binary
38	contains perl and 50 modules such as AnyEvent, EV, IO::AIO, Coro and so	42	that contains perl and 100 modules such as POSIX, AnyEvent, EV, IO::AIO,
39	on. Or any other choice of modules.	43	Coro and so on. Or any other choice of modules.
40		44
41	The created files do not need write access to the file system (like PAR	45	The created files do not need write access to the file system (like PAR
42	does). In fact, since this script is in many ways similar to PAR::Packer,	46	does). In fact, since this script is in many ways similar to PAR::Packer,
43	here are the differences:	47	here are the differences:
44		48
…		…
81	Maintaining your own custom perl build can be a pain in the ass, and while	85	Maintaining your own custom perl build can be a pain in the ass, and while
82	F<staticperl> tries to make this easy, it still requires a custom perl	86	F<staticperl> tries to make this easy, it still requires a custom perl
83	build and possibly fiddling with some modules. PAR is likely to produce	87	build and possibly fiddling with some modules. PAR is likely to produce
84	results faster.	88	results faster.
85		89
		90	Ok, PAR never has worked for me out of the box, and for some people,
		91	F<staticperl> does work out of the box, as they don't count "fiddling with
		92	module use lists" against it, but nevertheless, F<staticperl> is certainly
		93	a bit more difficult to use.
		94
86	=back	95	=back
87		96
88	=head1 HOW DOES IT WORK?	97	=head1 HOW DOES IT WORK?
89		98
90	Simple: F<staticperl> downloads, compile and installs a perl version of	99	Simple: F<staticperl> downloads, compile and installs a perl version of
…		…
184	command by specifying all the directories with modules in them that you	193	command by specifying all the directories with modules in them that you
185	want to have built.	194	want to have built.
186		195
187	=item F<staticperl clean>	196	=item F<staticperl clean>
188		197
189	Runs F<make distclean> in the perl source directory (and potentially	198	Deletes the perl source directory (and potentially cleans up other
190	cleans up other intermediate files). This can be used to clean up	199	intermediate files). This can be used to clean up files only needed for
191	intermediate files without removing the installed perl interpreter.	200	building perl, without removing the installed perl interpreter, or to
		201	force a re-build from scratch.
		202
		203	At the moment, it doesn't delete downloaded tarballs.
192		204
193	=item F<staticperl distclean>	205	=item F<staticperl distclean>
194		206
195	This wipes your complete F<~/.staticperl> directory. Be careful with this,	207	This wipes your complete F<~/.staticperl> directory. Be careful with this,
196	it nukes your perl download, perl sources, perl distribution and any	208	it nukes your perl download, perl sources, perl distribution and any
…		…
236	(required by L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>) implements various URI schemes as extra	248	(required by L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>) implements various URI schemes as extra
237	modules - since L<AnyEvent::HTTPD> only needs C<http> URIs, we only need	249	modules - since L<AnyEvent::HTTPD> only needs C<http> URIs, we only need
238	to include that module. I found out about these dependencies by carefully	250	to include that module. I found out about these dependencies by carefully
239	watching any error messages about missing modules...	251	watching any error messages about missing modules...
240		252
		253	Instead of building a new perl binary, you can also build a standalone
		254	application:
		255
		256	# build the app
		257	staticperl mkapp app --boot eg/httpd \
		258	-MAnyEvent::Impl::Perl -MAnyEvent::HTTPD -MURI::http
		259
		260	# run it
		261	./app
		262
241	=head3 OPTION PROCESSING	263	=head3 OPTION PROCESSING
242		264
243	All options can be given as arguments on the command line (typically	265	All options can be given as arguments on the command line (typically
244	using long (e.g. C<--verbose>) or short option (e.g. C<-v>) style). Since	266	using long (e.g. C<--verbose>) or short option (e.g. C<-v>) style). Since
245	specifying a lot of modules can make the command line very cumbersome,	267	specifying a lot of modules can make the command line very cumbersome,
…		…
287	is also a lot slower, so is best used for production builds. Note that	309	is also a lot slower, so is best used for production builds. Note that
288	this method doesn't optimise for raw file size, but for best compression	310	this method doesn't optimise for raw file size, but for best compression
289	(that means that the uncompressed file size is a bit larger, but the files	311	(that means that the uncompressed file size is a bit larger, but the files
290	compress better, e.g. with F<upx>).	312	compress better, e.g. with F<upx>).
291		313
		314	Last not least, if you need accurate line numbers in error messages,
292	Last not least, in the unlikely case where C<pod> is too slow, or some	315	or in the unlikely case where C<pod> is too slow, or some module gets
293	module gets mistreated, you can specify C<none> to not mangle included	316	mistreated, you can specify C<none> to not mangle included perl sources in
294	perl sources in any way.	317	any way.
295		318
296	=item --perl	319	=item --perl
297		320
298	After writing out the bundle files, try to link a new perl interpreter. It	321	After writing out the bundle files, try to link a new perl interpreter. It
299	will be called F<perl> and will be left in the current working	322	will be called F<perl> and will be left in the current working
…		…
302	This switch is automatically used when F<staticperl> is invoked with the	325	This switch is automatically used when F<staticperl> is invoked with the
303	C<mkperl> command (instead of C<mkbundle>):	326	C<mkperl> command (instead of C<mkbundle>):
304		327
305	# build a new ./perl with only common::sense in it - very small :)	328	# build a new ./perl with only common::sense in it - very small :)
306	staticperl mkperl -Mcommon::sense	329	staticperl mkperl -Mcommon::sense
		330
		331	=item --app name
		332
		333	After writing out the bundle files, try to link a new standalone
		334	program. It will be called C<name>, and the bundle files get removed after
		335	linking it.
		336
		337	The difference to the (mutually exclusive) C<--perl> option is that the
		338	binary created by this option will not try to act as a perl interpreter -
		339	instead it will simply initialise the perl interpreter, clean it up and
		340	exit.
		341
		342	This switch is automatically used when F<staticperl> is invoked with the
		343	C<mkapp> command (instead of C<mkbundle>):
		344
		345	To let it do something useful you I<must> add some boot code, e.g. with
		346	the C<--boot> option.
		347
		348	Example: create a standalone perl binary that will execute F<appfile> when
		349	it is started.
		350
		351	staticperl mkbundle --app myexe --boot appfile
307		352
308	=item --use module \| -Mmodule	353	=item --use module \| -Mmodule
309		354
310	Include the named module and all direct dependencies. This is done by	355	Include the named module and all direct dependencies. This is done by
311	C<require>'ing the module in a subprocess and tracing which other modules	356	C<require>'ing the module in a subprocess and tracing which other modules
…		…
382	# specification file	427	# specification file
383	add file1 myfiles/file1	428	add file1 myfiles/file1
384	add file2 myfiles/file2	429	add file2 myfiles/file2
385	add file3 myfiles/file3	430	add file3 myfiles/file3
386		431
		432	=item --binadd "file" \| --add "file alias"
		433
		434	Just like C<--add>, except that it treats the file as binary and adds it
		435	without any processing.
		436
		437	You should probably add a C</> prefix to avoid clashing with embedded
		438	perl files (whose paths do not start with C</>), and/or use a special
		439	directory, such as C</res/name>.
		440
		441	You can later get a copy of these files by calling C<staticperl::find
		442	"alias">.
		443
387	=item --static	444	=item --static
388		445
389	When C<--perl> is also given, link statically instead of dynamically. The	446	When C<--perl> is also given, link statically instead of dynamically. The
390	default is to link the new perl interpreter fully dynamic (that means all	447	default is to link the new perl interpreter fully dynamic (that means all
391	perl modules are linked statically, but all external libraries are still	448	perl modules are linked statically, but all external libraries are still
…		…
402	Any other argument is interpreted as a bundle specification file, which	459	Any other argument is interpreted as a bundle specification file, which
403	supports most long options (without extra quoting), one option per line.	460	supports most long options (without extra quoting), one option per line.
404		461
405	=back	462	=back
406		463
407	=head2 F<STATCPERL> CONFIGURATION AND HOOKS	464	=head2 F<STATICPERL> CONFIGURATION AND HOOKS
408		465
409	During (each) startup, F<staticperl> tries to source the following shell	466	During (each) startup, F<staticperl> tries to source the following shell
410	files in order:	467	files in order:
411		468
412	/etc/staticperlrc	469	/etc/staticperlrc
…		…
428	=item C<EMAIL>	485	=item C<EMAIL>
429		486
430	The e-mail address of the person who built this binary. Has no good	487	The e-mail address of the person who built this binary. Has no good
431	default, so should be specified by you.	488	default, so should be specified by you.
432		489
		490	=item C<CPAN>
		491
		492	The URL of the CPAN mirror to use (e.g. L<http://mirror.netcologne.de/cpan/>).
		493
		494	=item C<EXTRA_MODULES>
		495
		496	Additional modules installed during F<staticperl install>. Here you can
		497	set which modules you want have to installed from CPAN.
		498
		499	Example: I really really need EV, AnyEvent, Coro and AnyEvent::AIO.
		500
		501	EXTRA_MODULES="EV AnyEvent Coro AnyEvent::AIO"
		502
		503	Note that you can also use a C<postinstall> hook to achieve this, and
		504	more.
		505
433	=back	506	=back
434		507
435	=head4 Variables you might I<want> to override	508	=head4 Variables you might I<want> to override
436		509
437	=over 4	510	=over 4
438		511
		512	=item C<STATICPERL>
		513
		514	The directory where staticperl stores all its files
		515	(default: F<~/.staticperl>).
		516
		517	=item C<PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT>, C<EV_EXTRA_DEFS>, ...
		518
		519	Usually set to C<1> to make modules "less inquisitive" during their
		520	installation, you can set any environment variable you want - some modules
		521	(such as L<Coro> or L<EV>) use environment variables for further tweaking.
		522
439	=item C<PERLVER>	523	=item C<PERL_VERSION>
440		524
441	The perl version to install - default is currently C<5.12.2>, but C<5.8.9>	525	The perl version to install - default is currently C<5.12.2>, but C<5.8.9>
442	is also a good choice (5.8.9 is much smaller than 5.12.2, while 5.10.1 is	526	is also a good choice (5.8.9 is much smaller than 5.12.2, while 5.10.1 is
443	about as big as 5.12.2).	527	about as big as 5.12.2).
444		528
445	=item C<CPAN>
446
447	The URL of the CPAN mirror to use (e.g. L<http://mirror.netcologne.de/cpan/>).
448
449	=item C<EXTRA_MODULES>
450
451	Additional modules installed during F<staticperl install>. Here you can
452	set which modules you want have to installed from CPAN.
453
454	Example: I really really need EV, AnyEvent, Coro and IO::AIO.
455
456	EXTRA_MODULES="EV AnyEvent Coro IO::AIO"
457
458	Note that you can also use a C<postinstall> hook to achieve this, and
459	more.
460
461	=item C<PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT>, C<EV_EXTRA_DEFS>, ...
462
463	Usually set to C<1> to make modules "less inquisitive" during their
464	installation, you can set any environment variable you want - some modules
465	(such as L<Coro> or L<EV>) use environment variables for further tweaking.
466
467	=item C<STATICPERL>
468
469	The directory where staticperl stores all its files
470	(default: F<~/.staticperl>).
471
472	=item C<PREFIX>	529	=item C<PERL_PREFIX>
473		530
474	The prefix where perl gets installed (default: F<$STATICPERL/perl>),	531	The prefix where perl gets installed (default: F<$STATICPERL/perl>),
475	i.e. where the F<bin> and F<lib> subdirectories will end up.	532	i.e. where the F<bin> and F<lib> subdirectories will end up.
		533
		534	=item C<PERL_CONFIGURE>
		535
		536	Additional Configure options - these are simply passed to the perl
		537	Configure script. For example, if you wanted to enable dynamic loading,
		538	you could pass C<-Dusedl>. To enable ithreads (Why would you want that
		539	insanity? Don't! Use L<forks> instead!) you would pass C<-Duseithreads>
		540	and so on.
		541
		542	More commonly, you would either activate 64 bit integer support
		543	(C<-Duse64bitint>), or disable large files support (-Uuselargefiles), to
		544	reduce filesize further.
476		545
477	=item C<PERL_CPPFLAGS>, C<PERL_OPTIMIZE>, C<PERL_LDFLAGS>, C<PERL_LIBS>	546	=item C<PERL_CPPFLAGS>, C<PERL_OPTIMIZE>, C<PERL_LDFLAGS>, C<PERL_LIBS>
478		547
479	These flags are passed to perl's F<Configure> script, and are generally	548	These flags are passed to perl's F<Configure> script, and are generally
480	optimised for small size (at the cost of performance). Since they also	549	optimised for small size (at the cost of performance). Since they also
…		…
517	instcpan Anyevent::AIO AnyEvent::HTTPD	586	instcpan Anyevent::AIO AnyEvent::HTTPD
518	}	587	}
519		588
520	=over 4	589	=over 4
521		590
		591	=item preconfigure
		592
		593	Called just before running F<./Configur> in the perl source
		594	directory. Current working directory is the perl source directory.
		595
		596	This can be used to set any C<PERL_xxx> variables, which might be costly
		597	to compute.
		598
522	=item postconfigure	599	=item postconfigure
523		600
524	Called after configuring, but before building perl. Current working	601	Called after configuring, but before building perl. Current working
525	directory is the perl source directory.	602	directory is the perl source directory.
526		603
527	Could be used to tailor/patch config.sh (followed by F<./Configure -S>) or	604	Could be used to tailor/patch config.sh (followed by F<sh Configure -S>)
528	do any other modifications.	605	or do any other modifications.
529		606
530	=item postbuild	607	=item postbuild
531		608
532	Called after building, but before installing perl. Current working	609	Called after building, but before installing perl. Current working
533	directory is the perl source directory.	610	directory is the perl source directory.
…		…
548	The script must return with a zero exit status, or the installation will	625	The script must return with a zero exit status, or the installation will
549	fail.	626	fail.
550		627
551	=back	628	=back
552		629
		630	=head1 ANATOMY OF A BUNDLE
		631
		632	When not building a new perl binary, C<mkbundle> will leave a number of
		633	files in the current working directory, which can be used to embed a perl
		634	interpreter in your program.
		635
		636	Intimate knowledge of L<perlembed> and preferably some experience with
		637	embedding perl is highly recommended.
		638
		639	C<mkperl> (or the C<--perl> option) basically does this to link the new
		640	interpreter (it also adds a main program to F<bundle.>):
		641
		642	$Config{cc} $(cat bundle.ccopts) -o perl bundle.c $(cat bundle.ldopts)
		643
		644	=over 4
		645
		646	=item bundle.h
		647
		648	A header file that contains the prototypes of the few symbols "exported"
		649	by bundle.c, and also exposes the perl headers to the application.
		650
		651	=over 4
		652
		653	=item staticperl_init ()
		654
		655	Initialises the perl interpreter. You can use the normal perl functions
		656	after calling this function, for example, to define extra functions or
		657	to load a .pm file that contains some initialisation code, or the main
		658	program function:
		659
		660	XS (xsfunction)
		661	{
		662	dXSARGS;
		663
		664	// now we have items, ST(i) etc.
		665	}
		666
		667	static void
		668	run_myapp(void)
		669	{
		670	staticperl_init ();
		671	newXSproto ("myapp::xsfunction", xsfunction, __FILE__, "$$;$");
		672	eval_pv ("require myapp::main", 1); // executes "myapp/main.pm"
		673	}
		674
		675	=item staticperl_xs_init (pTHX)
		676
		677	Sometimes you need direct control over C<perl_parse> and C<perl_run>, in
		678	which case you do not want to use C<staticperl_init> but call them on your
		679	own.
		680
		681	Then you need this function - either pass it directly as the C<xs_init>
		682	function to C<perl_parse>, or call it from your own C<xs_init> function.
		683
		684	=item staticperl_cleanup ()
		685
		686	In the unlikely case that you want to destroy the perl interpreter, here
		687	is the corresponding function.
		688
		689	=item PerlInterpreter *staticperl
		690
		691	The perl interpreter pointer used by staticperl. Not normally so useful,
		692	but there it is.
		693
		694	=back
		695
		696	=item bundle.ccopts
		697
		698	Contains the compiler options required to compile at least F<bundle.c> and
		699	any file that includes F<bundle.h> - you should probably use it in your
		700	C<CFLAGS>.
		701
		702	=item bundle.ldopts
		703
		704	The linker options needed to link the final program.
		705
		706	=back
		707
		708	=head1 RUNTIME FUNCTIONALITY
		709
		710	Binaries created with C<mkbundle>/C<mkperl> contain extra functions, which
		711	are required to access the bundled perl sources, but might be useful for
		712	other purposes.
		713
		714	In addition, for the embedded loading of perl files to work, F<staticperl>
		715	overrides the C<@INC> array.
		716
		717	=over 4
		718
		719	=item $file = staticperl::find $path
		720
		721	Returns the data associated with the given C<$path>
		722	(e.g. C<Digest/MD5.pm>, C<auto/POSIX/autosplit.ix>), which is basically
		723	the UNIX path relative to the perl library directory.
		724
		725	Returns C<undef> if the file isn't embedded.
		726
		727	=item @paths = staticperl::list
		728
		729	Returns the list of all paths embedded in this binary.
		730
		731	=back
		732
		733	=head1 FULLY STATIC BINARIES - BUILDROOT
		734
		735	To make truly static (Linux-) libraries, you might want to have a look at
		736	buildroot (L<http://buildroot.uclibc.org/>).
		737
		738	Buildroot is primarily meant to set up a cross-compile environment (which
		739	is not so useful as perl doesn't quite like cross compiles), but it can also compile
		740	a chroot environment where you can use F<staticperl>.
		741
		742	To do so, download buildroot, and enable "Build options => development
		743	files in target filesystem" and optionally "Build options => gcc
		744	optimization level (optimize for size)". At the time of writing, I had
		745	good experiences with GCC 4.4.x but not GCC 4.5.
		746
		747	To minimise code size, I used C<-pipe -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections
		748	-finline-limit=8 -fno-builtin-strlen -mtune=i386>. The C<-mtune=i386>
		749	doesn't decrease codesize much, but it makes the file much more
		750	compressible.
		751
		752	If you don't need Coro or threads, you can go with "linuxthreads.old" (or
		753	no thread support). For Coro, it is highly recommended to switch to a
		754	uClibc newer than 0.9.31 (at the time of this writing, I used the 20101201
		755	snapshot) and enable NPTL, otherwise Coro needs to be configured with the
		756	ultra-slow pthreads backend to work around linuxthreads bugs (it also uses
		757	twice the address space needed for stacks).
		758
		759	If you use C<linuxthreads.old>, then you should also be aware that
		760	uClibc shares C<errno> between all threads when statically linking. See
		761	L<http://lists.uclibc.org/pipermail/uclibc/2010-June/044157.html> for a
		762	workaround (And L<https://bugs.uclibc.org/2089> for discussion).
		763
		764	C<ccache> support is also recommended, especially if you want
		765	to play around with buildroot options. Enabling the C<miniperl>
		766	package will probably enable all options required for a successful
		767	perl build. F<staticperl> itself additionally needs either C<wget>
		768	(recommended, for CPAN) or C<curl>.
		769
		770	As for shells, busybox should provide all that is needed, but the default
		771	busybox configuration doesn't include F<comm> which is needed by perl -
		772	either make a custom busybox config, or compile coreutils.
		773
		774	For the latter route, you might find that bash has some bugs that keep
		775	it from working properly in a chroot - either use dash (and link it to
		776	F</bin/sh> inside the chroot) or link busybox to F</bin/sh>, using it's
		777	built-in ash shell.
		778
		779	Finally, you need F</dev/null> inside the chroot for many scripts to work
		780	- F<cp /dev/null output/target/dev> or bind-mounting your F</dev> will
		781	both provide this.
		782
		783	After you have compiled and set up your buildroot target, you can copy
		784	F<staticperl> from the C<App::Staticperl> distribution or from your
		785	perl f<bin> directory (if you installed it) into the F<output/target>
		786	filesystem, chroot inside and run it.
		787
553	=head1 AUTHOR	788	=head1 AUTHOR
554		789
555	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>	790	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
556	http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/staticperl.html	791	http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/staticperl.html

Diff Legend

-–
+Removed lines
-+
+Added lines
-<
+Changed lines
->
+Changed lines

Comparing App-Staticperl/staticperl.pod (file contents): Revision 1.7 by root, Mon Dec 6 21:21:44 2010 UTC vs. Revision 1.16 by root, Wed Dec 8 23:03:21 2010 UTC

Diff Legend

Comparing App-Staticperl/staticperl.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.7 by root, Mon Dec 6 21:21:44 2010 UTC vs.
Revision 1.16 by root, Wed Dec 8 23:03:21 2010 UTC