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

Comparing App-Staticperl/staticperl.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.4 by root, Mon Dec 6 21:12:21 2010 UTC vs.
Revision 1.13 by root, Tue Dec 7 19:55:56 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
32	fully self-contained - no separate shared objects, no autoload fragments,	32	fully self-contained - no separate shared objects, no autoload fragments,
33	no .pm or .pl files are needed. And when linking statically, you can	33	no .pm or .pl files are needed. And when linking statically, you can
34	create (or embed) a single file that contains perl interpreter, libc, all	34	create (or embed) a single file that contains perl interpreter, libc, all
35	the modules you need and all the libraries you need.	35	the modules you need and all the libraries you need.
36		36
37	With F<uClibc> and F<upx> on x86, you can create a single 500kb binary that	37	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	38	that contains perl and 100 modules such as POSIX, AnyEvent, EV, IO::AIO,
39	on. Or any other choice of modules.	39	Coro and so on. Or any other choice of modules.
40		40
41	The created files do not need write access to the file system (like PAR	41	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,	42	does). In fact, since this script is in many ways similar to PAR::Packer,
43	here are the differences:	43	here are the differences:
44		44
…		…
81	Maintaining your own custom perl build can be a pain in the ass, and while	81	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	82	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	83	build and possibly fiddling with some modules. PAR is likely to produce
84	results faster.	84	results faster.
85		85
		86	Ok, PAR never has worked for me out of the box, and for some people,
		87	F<staticperl> does work out of the box, as they don't count "fiddling with
		88	module use lists" against it, but nevertheless, F<staticperl> is certainly
		89	a bit more difficult to use.
		90
86	=back	91	=back
87		92
88	=head1 HOW DOES IT WORK?	93	=head1 HOW DOES IT WORK?
89		94
90	Simple: F<staticperl> downloads, compile and installs a perl version of	95	Simple: F<staticperl> downloads, compile and installs a perl version of
…		…
184	command by specifying all the directories with modules in them that you	189	command by specifying all the directories with modules in them that you
185	want to have built.	190	want to have built.
186		191
187	=item F<staticperl clean>	192	=item F<staticperl clean>
188		193
189	Runs F<make distclean> in the perl source directory (and potentially	194	Deletes the perl source directory (and potentially cleans up other
190	cleans up other intermediate files). This can be used to clean up	195	intermediate files). This can be used to clean up files only needed for
191	intermediate files without removing the installed perl interpreter.	196	building perl, without removing the installed perl interpreter, or to
		197	force a re-build from scratch.
		198
		199	At the moment, it doesn't delete downloaded tarballs.
192		200
193	=item F<staticperl distclean>	201	=item F<staticperl distclean>
194		202
195	This wipes your complete F<~/.staticperl> directory. Be careful with this,	203	This wipes your complete F<~/.staticperl> directory. Be careful with this,
196	it nukes your perl download, perl sources, perl distribution and any	204	it nukes your perl download, perl sources, perl distribution and any
…		…
287	is also a lot slower, so is best used for production builds. Note that	295	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	296	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	297	(that means that the uncompressed file size is a bit larger, but the files
290	compress better, e.g. with F<upx>).	298	compress better, e.g. with F<upx>).
291		299
		300	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	301	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	302	mistreated, you can specify C<none> to not mangle included perl sources in
294	perl sources in any way.	303	any way.
295		304
296	=item --perl	305	=item --perl
297		306
298	After writing out the bundle files, try to link a new perl interpreter. It	307	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	308	will be called F<perl> and will be left in the current working
…		…
382	# specification file	391	# specification file
383	add file1 myfiles/file1	392	add file1 myfiles/file1
384	add file2 myfiles/file2	393	add file2 myfiles/file2
385	add file3 myfiles/file3	394	add file3 myfiles/file3
386		395
		396	=item --binadd "file" \| --add "file alias"
		397
		398	Just like C<--add>, except that it treats the file as binary and adds it
		399	without any processing.
		400
		401	You should probably add a C</> prefix to avoid clashing with embedded
		402	perl files (whose paths do not start with C</>), and/or use a special
		403	directory, such as C</res/name>.
		404
		405	You can later get a copy of these files by calling C<staticperl::find
		406	"alias">.
		407
387	=item --static	408	=item --static
388		409
389	When C<--perl> is also given, link statically instead of dynamically. The	410	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	411	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	412	perl modules are linked statically, but all external libraries are still
…		…
428	=item C<EMAIL>	449	=item C<EMAIL>
429		450
430	The e-mail address of the person who built this binary. Has no good	451	The e-mail address of the person who built this binary. Has no good
431	default, so should be specified by you.	452	default, so should be specified by you.
432		453
433	=back	454	=item C<CPAN>
434		455
		456	The URL of the CPAN mirror to use (e.g. L<http://mirror.netcologne.de/cpan/>).
		457
		458	=item C<EXTRA_MODULES>
		459
		460	Additional modules installed during F<staticperl install>. Here you can
		461	set which modules you want have to installed from CPAN.
		462
		463	Example: I really really need EV, AnyEvent, Coro and AnyEvent::AIO.
		464
		465	EXTRA_MODULES="EV AnyEvent Coro AnyEvent::AIO"
		466
		467	Note that you can also use a C<postinstall> hook to achieve this, and
		468	more.
		469
		470	=back
		471
435	=head4 Variables you I<might want> to override	472	=head4 Variables you might I<want> to override
436		473
437	=over 4	474	=over 4
438		475
		476	=item C<STATICPERL>
		477
		478	The directory where staticperl stores all its files
		479	(default: F<~/.staticperl>).
		480
		481	=item C<PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT>, C<EV_EXTRA_DEFS>, ...
		482
		483	Usually set to C<1> to make modules "less inquisitive" during their
		484	installation, you can set any environment variable you want - some modules
		485	(such as L<Coro> or L<EV>) use environment variables for further tweaking.
		486
439	=item C<PERLVER>	487	=item C<PERL_VERSION>
440		488
441	The perl version to install - default is currently C<5.12.2>, but C<5.8.9>	489	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	490	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).	491	about as big as 5.12.2).
444		492
445	=item C<CPAN>	493	=item C<PERL_PREFIX>
446		494
447	The URL of the CPAN mirror to use (e.g. L<http://mirror.netcologne.de/cpan/>).	495	The prefix where perl gets installed (default: F<$STATICPERL/perl>),
		496	i.e. where the F<bin> and F<lib> subdirectories will end up.
		497
		498	=item C<PERL_CONFIGURE>
		499
		500	Additional Configure options - these are simply passed to the perl
		501	Configure script. For example, if you wanted to enable dynamic loading,
		502	you could pass C<-Dusedl>. To enable ithreads (Why would you want that
		503	insanity? Don't! Use L<forks> instead!) you would pass C<-Duseithreads>
		504	and so on.
		505
		506	More commonly, you would either activate 64 bit integer support
		507	(C<-Duse64bitint>), or disable large files support (-Uuselargefiles), to
		508	reduce filesize further.
448		509
449	=item C<PERL_CPPFLAGS>, C<PERL_OPTIMIZE>, C<PERL_LDFLAGS>, C<PERL_LIBS>	510	=item C<PERL_CPPFLAGS>, C<PERL_OPTIMIZE>, C<PERL_LDFLAGS>, C<PERL_LIBS>
450		511
451	These flags are passed to perl's F<Configure> script, and are generally	512	These flags are passed to perl's F<Configure> script, and are generally
452	optimised for small size (at the cost of performance). Since they also	513	optimised for small size (at the cost of performance). Since they also
453	contain subtle workarounds around various build issues, changing these	514	contain subtle workarounds around various build issues, changing these
454	usually requires understanding their default values - best look at the top	515	usually requires understanding their default values - best look at the top
455	of the F<staticperl> script for more info on these.	516	of the F<staticperl> script for more info on these.
456		517
457	=item C<STATICPERL>
458
459	The directory where staticperl stores all its files
460	(default: F<~/.staticperl>).
461
462	=item C<PREFIX>
463
464	The prefix where perl gets installed (default: F<$STATICPERL/perl>),
465	i.e. where the F<bin> and F<lib> subdirectories will end up.
466
467	=item C<PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT>, C<EV_EXTRA_DEFS>, others
468
469	Usually set to C<1> to make modules "less inquisitive" during their
470	installation, you can set any environment variable you want - some modules
471	(such as L<Coro> or L<EV>) use environment variables for further tweaking.
472
473	=item C<EXTRA_MODULES>
474
475	Additional modules installed during F<staticperl install>. Here you can
476	set which modules you want have to installed from CPAN.
477
478	Example: I really really need EV, AnyEvent, Coro and IO::AIO.
479
480	EXTRA_MODULES="EV AnyEvent Coro IO::AIO"
481
482	Note that you can also use a C<postinstall> hook to achieve this, and
483	more.
484
485	=back	518	=back
486		519
487	=head4 Variables you I<probably do not want> to override	520	=head4 Variables you probably I<do not want> to override
488		521
489	=over 4	522	=over 4
490		523
491	=item C<MKBUNDLE>	524	=item C<MKBUNDLE>
492		525
…		…
517	instcpan Anyevent::AIO AnyEvent::HTTPD	550	instcpan Anyevent::AIO AnyEvent::HTTPD
518	}	551	}
519		552
520	=over 4	553	=over 4
521		554
		555	=item preconfigure
		556
		557	Called just before running F<./Configur> in the perl source
		558	directory. Current working directory is the perl source directory.
		559
		560	This can be used to set any C<PERL_xxx> variables, which might be costly
		561	to compute.
		562
522	=item postconfigure	563	=item postconfigure
523		564
524	Called after configuring, but before building perl. Current working	565	Called after configuring, but before building perl. Current working
525	directory is the perl source directory.	566	directory is the perl source directory.
526		567
527	Could be used to tailor/patch config.sh (followed by F<./Configure -S>) or	568	Could be used to tailor/patch config.sh (followed by F<sh Configure -S>)
528	do any other modifications.	569	or do any other modifications.
529		570
530	=item postbuild	571	=item postbuild
531		572
532	Called after building, but before installing perl. Current working	573	Called after building, but before installing perl. Current working
533	directory is the perl source directory.	574	directory is the perl source directory.
…		…
548	The script must return with a zero exit status, or the installation will	589	The script must return with a zero exit status, or the installation will
549	fail.	590	fail.
550		591
551	=back	592	=back
552		593
		594	=head1 ANATOMY OF A BUNDLE
		595
		596	When not building a new perl binary, C<mkbundle> will leave a number of
		597	files in the current working directory, which can be used to embed a perl
		598	interpreter in your program.
		599
		600	Intimate knowledge of L<perlembed> and preferably some experience with
		601	embedding perl is highly recommended.
		602
		603	C<mkperl> (or the C<--perl> option) basically does this to link the new
		604	interpreter (it also adds a main program to F<bundle.>):
		605
		606	$Config{cc} $(cat bundle.ccopts) -o perl bundle.c $(cat bundle.ldopts)
		607
		608	=over 4
		609
		610	=item bundle.h
		611
		612	A header file that contains the prototypes of the few symbols "exported"
		613	by bundle.c, and also exposes the perl headers to the application.
		614
		615	=over 4
		616
		617	=item staticperl_init ()
		618
		619	Initialises the perl interpreter. You can use the normal perl functions
		620	after calling this function, for example, to define extra functions or
		621	to load a .pm file that contains some initialisation code, or the main
		622	program function:
		623
		624	XS (xsfunction)
		625	{
		626	dXSARGS;
		627
		628	// now we have items, ST(i) etc.
		629	}
		630
		631	static void
		632	run_myapp(void)
		633	{
		634	staticperl_init ();
		635	newXSproto ("myapp::xsfunction", xsfunction, __FILE__, "$$;$");
		636	eval_pv ("require myapp::main", 1); // executes "myapp/main.pm"
		637	}
		638
		639	=item staticperl_xs_init (pTHX)
		640
		641	Sometimes you need direct control over C<perl_parse> and C<perl_run>, in
		642	which case you do not want to use C<staticperl_init> but call them on your
		643	own.
		644
		645	Then you need this function - either pass it directly as the C<xs_init>
		646	function to C<perl_parse>, or call it from your own C<xs_init> function.
		647
		648	=item staticperl_cleanup ()
		649
		650	In the unlikely case that you want to destroy the perl interpreter, here
		651	is the corresponding function.
		652
		653	=item PerlInterpreter *staticperl
		654
		655	The perl interpreter pointer used by staticperl. Not normally so useful,
		656	but there it is.
		657
		658	=back
		659
		660	=item bundle.ccopts
		661
		662	Contains the compiler options required to compile at least F<bundle.c> and
		663	any file that includes F<bundle.h> - you should probably use it in your
		664	C<CFLAGS>.
		665
		666	=item bundle.ldopts
		667
		668	The linker options needed to link the final program.
		669
		670	=back
		671
		672	=head1 RUNTIME FUNCTIONALITY
		673
		674	Binaries created with C<mkbundle>/C<mkperl> contain extra functions, which
		675	are required to access the bundled perl sources, but might be useful for
		676	other purposes.
		677
		678	In addition, for the embedded loading of perl files to work, F<staticperl>
		679	overrides the C<@INC> array.
		680
		681	=over 4
		682
		683	=item $file = staticperl::find $path
		684
		685	Returns the data associated with the given C<$path>
		686	(e.g. C<Digest/MD5.pm>, C<auto/POSIX/autosplit.ix>), which is basically
		687	the UNIX path relative to the perl library directory.
		688
		689	Returns C<undef> if the file isn't embedded.
		690
		691	=item @paths = staticperl::list
		692
		693	Returns the list of all paths embedded in this binary.
		694
		695	=back
		696
		697	=head1 FULLY STATIC BINARIES - BUILDROOT
		698
		699	To make truly static (Linux-) libraries, you might want to have a look at
		700	buildroot (L<http://buildroot.uclibc.org/>).
		701
		702	Buildroot is primarily meant to set up a cross-compile environment (which
		703	is not so useful as perl doesn't quite like cross compiles), but it can also compile
		704	a chroot environment where you can use F<staticperl>.
		705
		706	To do so, download buildroot, and enable "Build options => development
		707	files in target filesystem" and optionally "Build options => gcc
		708	optimization level (optimize for size)". At the time of writing, I had
		709	good experiences with GCC 4.4.x but not GCC 4.5.
		710
		711	To minimise code size, I used C<-pipe -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections
		712	-finline-limit=8 -fno-builtin-strlen -mtune=i386>. The C<-mtune=i386>
		713	doesn't decrease codesize much, but it makes the file much more
		714	compressible.
		715
		716	If you don't need Coro or threads, you can go with "linuxthreads.old" (or
		717	no thread support). For Coro, it is highly recommended to switch to a
		718	uClibc newer than 0.9.31 (at the time of this writing, I used the 20101201
		719	snapshot) and enable NPTL, otherwise Coro needs to be configured with the
		720	ultra-slow pthreads backend to work around linuxthreads bugs (it also uses
		721	twice the address space needed for stacks).
		722
		723	If you use C<linuxthreads.old>, then you should also be aware that
		724	uClibc shares C<errno> between all threads when statically linking. See
		725	L<http://lists.uclibc.org/pipermail/uclibc/2010-June/044157.html> for a
		726	workaround (And L<https://bugs.uclibc.org/2089> for discussion).
		727
		728	C<ccache> support is also recommended, especially if you want
		729	to play around with buildroot options. Enabling the C<miniperl>
		730	package will probably enable all options required for a successful
		731	perl build. F<staticperl> itself additionally needs either C<wget>
		732	(recommended, for CPAN) or C<curl>.
		733
		734	As for shells, busybox should provide all that is needed, but the default
		735	busybox configuration doesn't include F<comm> which is needed by perl -
		736	either make a custom busybox config, or compile coreutils.
		737
		738	For the latter route, you might find that bash has some bugs that keep
		739	it from working properly in a chroot - either use dash (and link it to
		740	F</bin/sh> inside the chroot) or link busybox to F</bin/sh>, using it's
		741	built-in ash shell.
		742
		743	Finally, you need F</dev/null> inside the chroot for many scripts to work
		744	- F<cp /dev/null output/target/dev> or bind-mounting your F</dev> will
		745	both provide this.
		746
		747	After you have compiled and set up your buildroot target, you can copy
		748	F<staticperl> from the C<App::Staticperl> distribution or from your
		749	perl f<bin> directory (if you installed it) into the F<output/target>
		750	filesystem, chroot inside and run it.
		751
553	=head1 AUTHOR	752	=head1 AUTHOR
554		753
555	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>	754	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
556	http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/staticperl.html	755	http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/staticperl.html

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Comparing App-Staticperl/staticperl.pod (file contents): Revision 1.4 by root, Mon Dec 6 21:12:21 2010 UTC vs. Revision 1.13 by root, Tue Dec 7 19:55:56 2010 UTC

Diff Legend

Comparing App-Staticperl/staticperl.pod (file contents):
Revision 1.4 by root, Mon Dec 6 21:12:21 2010 UTC vs.
Revision 1.13 by root, Tue Dec 7 19:55:56 2010 UTC