1 |
=head1 NAME |
2 |
|
3 |
staticperl - perl, libc, 100 modules, all in one 500kb file |
4 |
|
5 |
=head1 SYNOPSIS |
6 |
|
7 |
staticperl help # print the embedded documentation |
8 |
staticperl fetch # fetch and unpack perl sources |
9 |
staticperl configure # fetch and then configure perl |
10 |
staticperl build # configure and then build perl |
11 |
staticperl install # build and then install perl |
12 |
staticperl clean # clean most intermediate files (restart at configure) |
13 |
staticperl distclean # delete everything installed by this script |
14 |
staticperl cpan # invoke CPAN shell |
15 |
staticperl instmod path... # install unpacked modules |
16 |
staticperl instcpan modulename... # install modules from CPAN |
17 |
staticperl mkbundle <bundle-args...> # see documentation |
18 |
staticperl mkperl <bundle-args...> # see documentation |
19 |
staticperl mkapp appname <bundle-args...> # see documentation |
20 |
|
21 |
Typical Examples: |
22 |
|
23 |
staticperl install # fetch, configure, build and install perl |
24 |
staticperl cpan # run interactive cpan shell |
25 |
staticperl mkperl -M '"Config_heavy.pl"' # build a perl that supports -V |
26 |
staticperl mkperl -MAnyEvent::Impl::Perl -MAnyEvent::HTTPD -MURI -MURI::http |
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 |
30 |
|
31 |
=head1 DESCRIPTION |
32 |
|
33 |
This script helps you to create single-file perl interpreters |
34 |
or applications, or embedding a perl interpreter in your |
35 |
applications. Single-file means that it is fully self-contained - no |
36 |
separate shared objects, no autoload fragments, no .pm or .pl files are |
37 |
needed. And when linking statically, you can create (or embed) a single |
38 |
file that contains perl interpreter, libc, all the modules you need, all |
39 |
the libraries you need and of course your actual program. |
40 |
|
41 |
With F<uClibc> and F<upx> on x86, you can create a single 500kb binary |
42 |
that contains perl and 100 modules such as POSIX, AnyEvent, EV, IO::AIO, |
43 |
Coro and so on. Or any other choice of modules. |
44 |
|
45 |
The created files do not need write access to the file system (like PAR |
46 |
does). In fact, since this script is in many ways similar to PAR::Packer, |
47 |
here are the differences: |
48 |
|
49 |
=over 4 |
50 |
|
51 |
=item * The generated executables are much smaller than PAR created ones. |
52 |
|
53 |
Shared objects and the perl binary contain a lot of extra info, while |
54 |
the static nature of F<staticperl> allows the linker to remove all |
55 |
functionality and meta-info not required by the final executable. Even |
56 |
extensions statically compiled into perl at build time will only be |
57 |
present in the final executable when needed. |
58 |
|
59 |
In addition, F<staticperl> can strip perl sources much more effectively |
60 |
than PAR. |
61 |
|
62 |
=item * The generated executables start much faster. |
63 |
|
64 |
There is no need to unpack files, or even to parse Zip archives (which is |
65 |
slow and memory-consuming business). |
66 |
|
67 |
=item * The generated executables don't need a writable filesystem. |
68 |
|
69 |
F<staticperl> loads all required files directly from memory. There is no |
70 |
need to unpack files into a temporary directory. |
71 |
|
72 |
=item * More control over included files, more burden. |
73 |
|
74 |
PAR tries to be maintenance and hassle-free - it tries to include more |
75 |
files than necessary to make sure everything works out of the box. It |
76 |
mostly succeeds at this, but he extra files (such as the unicode database) |
77 |
can take substantial amounts of memory and file size. |
78 |
|
79 |
With F<staticperl>, the burden is mostly with the developer - only direct |
80 |
compile-time dependencies and L<AutoLoader> are handled automatically. |
81 |
This means the modules to include often need to be tweaked manually. |
82 |
|
83 |
All this does not preclude more permissive modes to be implemented in |
84 |
the future, but right now, you have to resolve state hidden dependencies |
85 |
manually. |
86 |
|
87 |
=item * PAR works out of the box, F<staticperl> does not. |
88 |
|
89 |
Maintaining your own custom perl build can be a pain in the ass, and while |
90 |
F<staticperl> tries to make this easy, it still requires a custom perl |
91 |
build and possibly fiddling with some modules. PAR is likely to produce |
92 |
results faster. |
93 |
|
94 |
Ok, PAR never has worked for me out of the box, and for some people, |
95 |
F<staticperl> does work out of the box, as they don't count "fiddling with |
96 |
module use lists" against it, but nevertheless, F<staticperl> is certainly |
97 |
a bit more difficult to use. |
98 |
|
99 |
=back |
100 |
|
101 |
=head1 HOW DOES IT WORK? |
102 |
|
103 |
Simple: F<staticperl> downloads, compile and installs a perl version of |
104 |
your choice in F<~/.staticperl>. You can add extra modules either by |
105 |
letting F<staticperl> install them for you automatically, or by using CPAN |
106 |
and doing it interactively. This usually takes 5-10 minutes, depending on |
107 |
the speed of your computer and your internet connection. |
108 |
|
109 |
It is possible to do program development at this stage, too. |
110 |
|
111 |
Afterwards, you create a list of files and modules you want to include, |
112 |
and then either build a new perl binary (that acts just like a normal perl |
113 |
except everything is compiled in), or you create bundle files (basically C |
114 |
sources you can use to embed all files into your project). |
115 |
|
116 |
This step is very fast (a few seconds if PPI is not used for stripping, |
117 |
more seconds otherwise, as PPI is very slow), and can be tweaked and |
118 |
repeated as often as necessary. |
119 |
|
120 |
=head1 THE F<STATICPERL> SCRIPT |
121 |
|
122 |
This module installs a script called F<staticperl> into your perl |
123 |
binary directory. The script is fully self-contained, and can be used |
124 |
without perl (for example, in an uClibc chroot environment). In fact, |
125 |
it can be extracted from the C<App::Staticperl> distribution tarball as |
126 |
F<bin/staticperl>, without any installation. |
127 |
|
128 |
F<staticperl> interprets the first argument as a command to execute, |
129 |
optionally followed by any parameters. |
130 |
|
131 |
There are two command categories: the "phase 1" commands which deal with |
132 |
installing perl and perl modules, and the "phase 2" commands, which deal |
133 |
with creating binaries and bundle files. |
134 |
|
135 |
=head2 PHASE 1 COMMANDS: INSTALLING PERL |
136 |
|
137 |
The most important command is F<install>, which does basically |
138 |
everything. The default is to download and install perl 5.12.2 and a few |
139 |
modules required by F<staticperl> itself, but all this can (and should) be |
140 |
changed - see L<CONFIGURATION>, below. |
141 |
|
142 |
The command |
143 |
|
144 |
staticperl install |
145 |
|
146 |
Is normally all you need: It installs the perl interpreter in |
147 |
F<~/.staticperl/perl>. It downloads, configures, builds and installs the |
148 |
perl interpreter if required. |
149 |
|
150 |
Most of the following commands simply run one or more steps of this |
151 |
sequence. |
152 |
|
153 |
To force recompilation or reinstallation, you need to run F<staticperl |
154 |
distclean> first. |
155 |
|
156 |
=over 4 |
157 |
|
158 |
=item F<staticperl fetch> |
159 |
|
160 |
Runs only the download and unpack phase, unless this has already happened. |
161 |
|
162 |
=item F<staticperl configure> |
163 |
|
164 |
Configures the unpacked perl sources, potentially after downloading them first. |
165 |
|
166 |
=item F<staticperl build> |
167 |
|
168 |
Builds the configured perl sources, potentially after automatically |
169 |
configuring them. |
170 |
|
171 |
=item F<staticperl install> |
172 |
|
173 |
Wipes the perl installation directory (usually F<~/.staticperl/perl>) and |
174 |
installs the perl distribution, potentially after building it first. |
175 |
|
176 |
=item F<staticperl cpan> [args...] |
177 |
|
178 |
Starts an interactive CPAN shell that you can use to install further |
179 |
modules. Installs the perl first if necessary, but apart from that, |
180 |
no magic is involved: you could just as well run it manually via |
181 |
F<~/.staticperl/perl/bin/cpan>. |
182 |
|
183 |
Any additional arguments are simply passed to the F<cpan> command. |
184 |
|
185 |
=item F<staticperl instcpan> module... |
186 |
|
187 |
Tries to install all the modules given and their dependencies, using CPAN. |
188 |
|
189 |
Example: |
190 |
|
191 |
staticperl instcpan EV AnyEvent::HTTPD Coro |
192 |
|
193 |
=item F<staticperl instsrc> directory... |
194 |
|
195 |
In the unlikely case that you have unpacked perl modules around and want |
196 |
to install from these instead of from CPAN, you can do this using this |
197 |
command by specifying all the directories with modules in them that you |
198 |
want to have built. |
199 |
|
200 |
=item F<staticperl clean> |
201 |
|
202 |
Deletes the perl source directory (and potentially cleans up other |
203 |
intermediate files). This can be used to clean up files only needed for |
204 |
building perl, without removing the installed perl interpreter, or to |
205 |
force a re-build from scratch. |
206 |
|
207 |
At the moment, it doesn't delete downloaded tarballs. |
208 |
|
209 |
=item F<staticperl distclean> |
210 |
|
211 |
This wipes your complete F<~/.staticperl> directory. Be careful with this, |
212 |
it nukes your perl download, perl sources, perl distribution and any |
213 |
installed modules. It is useful if you wish to start over "from scratch" |
214 |
or when you want to uninstall F<staticperl>. |
215 |
|
216 |
=back |
217 |
|
218 |
=head2 PHASE 2 COMMANDS: BUILDING PERL BUNDLES |
219 |
|
220 |
Building (linking) a new F<perl> binary is handled by a separate |
221 |
script. To make it easy to use F<staticperl> from a F<chroot>, the script |
222 |
is embedded into F<staticperl>, which will write it out and call for you |
223 |
with any arguments you pass: |
224 |
|
225 |
staticperl mkbundle mkbundle-args... |
226 |
|
227 |
In the oh so unlikely case of something not working here, you |
228 |
can run the script manually as well (by default it is written to |
229 |
F<~/.staticperl/mkbundle>). |
230 |
|
231 |
F<mkbundle> is a more conventional command and expect the argument |
232 |
syntax commonly used on UNIX clones. For example, this command builds |
233 |
a new F<perl> binary and includes F<Config.pm> (for F<perl -V>), |
234 |
F<AnyEvent::HTTPD>, F<URI> and a custom F<httpd> script (from F<eg/httpd> |
235 |
in this distribution): |
236 |
|
237 |
# first make sure we have perl and the required modules |
238 |
staticperl instcpan AnyEvent::HTTPD |
239 |
|
240 |
# now build the perl |
241 |
staticperl mkperl -M'"Config_heavy.pl"' -MAnyEvent::Impl::Perl \ |
242 |
-MAnyEvent::HTTPD -MURI::http \ |
243 |
--add 'eg/httpd httpd.pm' |
244 |
|
245 |
# finally, invoke it |
246 |
./perl -Mhttpd |
247 |
|
248 |
As you can see, things are not quite as trivial: the L<Config> module has |
249 |
a hidden dependency which is not even a perl module (F<Config_heavy.pl>), |
250 |
L<AnyEvent> needs at least one event loop backend that we have to |
251 |
specify manually (here L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl>), and the F<URI> module |
252 |
(required by L<AnyEvent::HTTPD>) implements various URI schemes as extra |
253 |
modules - since L<AnyEvent::HTTPD> only needs C<http> URIs, we only need |
254 |
to include that module. I found out about these dependencies by carefully |
255 |
watching any error messages about missing modules... |
256 |
|
257 |
Instead of building a new perl binary, you can also build a standalone |
258 |
application: |
259 |
|
260 |
# build the app |
261 |
staticperl mkapp app --boot eg/httpd \ |
262 |
-MAnyEvent::Impl::Perl -MAnyEvent::HTTPD -MURI::http |
263 |
|
264 |
# run it |
265 |
./app |
266 |
|
267 |
=head3 OPTION PROCESSING |
268 |
|
269 |
All options can be given as arguments on the command line (typically |
270 |
using long (e.g. C<--verbose>) or short option (e.g. C<-v>) style). Since |
271 |
specifying a lot of modules can make the command line very cumbersome, |
272 |
you can put all long options into a "bundle specification file" (with or |
273 |
without C<--> prefix) and specify this bundle file instead. |
274 |
|
275 |
For example, the command given earlier could also look like this: |
276 |
|
277 |
staticperl mkperl httpd.bundle |
278 |
|
279 |
And all options could be in F<httpd.bundle>: |
280 |
|
281 |
use "Config_heavy.pl" |
282 |
use AnyEvent::Impl::Perl |
283 |
use AnyEvent::HTTPD |
284 |
use URI::http |
285 |
add eg/httpd httpd.pm |
286 |
|
287 |
All options that specify modules or files to be added are processed in the |
288 |
order given on the command line (that affects the C<--use> and C<--eval> |
289 |
options at the moment). |
290 |
|
291 |
=head3 MKBUNDLE OPTIONS |
292 |
|
293 |
=over 4 |
294 |
|
295 |
=item --verbose | -v |
296 |
|
297 |
Increases the verbosity level by one (the default is C<1>). |
298 |
|
299 |
=item --quiet | -q |
300 |
|
301 |
Decreases the verbosity level by one. |
302 |
|
303 |
=item --strip none|pod|ppi |
304 |
|
305 |
Specify the stripping method applied to reduce the file of the perl |
306 |
sources included. |
307 |
|
308 |
The default is C<pod>, which uses the L<Pod::Strip> module to remove all |
309 |
pod documentation, which is very fast and reduces file size a lot. |
310 |
|
311 |
The C<ppi> method uses L<PPI> to parse and condense the perl sources. This |
312 |
saves a lot more than just L<Pod::Strip>, and is generally safer, but |
313 |
is also a lot slower, so is best used for production builds. Note that |
314 |
this method doesn't optimise for raw file size, but for best compression |
315 |
(that means that the uncompressed file size is a bit larger, but the files |
316 |
compress better, e.g. with F<upx>). |
317 |
|
318 |
Last not least, if you need accurate line numbers in error messages, |
319 |
or in the unlikely case where C<pod> is too slow, or some module gets |
320 |
mistreated, you can specify C<none> to not mangle included perl sources in |
321 |
any way. |
322 |
|
323 |
=item --perl |
324 |
|
325 |
After writing out the bundle files, try to link a new perl interpreter. It |
326 |
will be called F<perl> and will be left in the current working |
327 |
directory. The bundle files will be removed. |
328 |
|
329 |
This switch is automatically used when F<staticperl> is invoked with the |
330 |
C<mkperl> command (instead of C<mkbundle>): |
331 |
|
332 |
# build a new ./perl with only common::sense in it - very small :) |
333 |
staticperl mkperl -Mcommon::sense |
334 |
|
335 |
=item --app name |
336 |
|
337 |
After writing out the bundle files, try to link a new standalone |
338 |
program. It will be called C<name>, and the bundle files get removed after |
339 |
linking it. |
340 |
|
341 |
The difference to the (mutually exclusive) C<--perl> option is that the |
342 |
binary created by this option will not try to act as a perl interpreter - |
343 |
instead it will simply initialise the perl interpreter, clean it up and |
344 |
exit. |
345 |
|
346 |
This switch is automatically used when F<staticperl> is invoked with the |
347 |
C<mkapp> command (instead of C<mkbundle>): |
348 |
|
349 |
To let it do something useful you I<must> add some boot code, e.g. with |
350 |
the C<--boot> option. |
351 |
|
352 |
Example: create a standalone perl binary that will execute F<appfile> when |
353 |
it is started. |
354 |
|
355 |
staticperl mkbundle --app myexe --boot appfile |
356 |
|
357 |
=item --use module | -Mmodule |
358 |
|
359 |
Include the named module and all direct dependencies. This is done by |
360 |
C<require>'ing the module in a subprocess and tracing which other modules |
361 |
and files it actually loads. If the module uses L<AutoLoader>, then all |
362 |
splitfiles will be included as well. |
363 |
|
364 |
Example: include AnyEvent and AnyEvent::Impl::Perl. |
365 |
|
366 |
staticperl mkbundle --use AnyEvent --use AnyEvent::Impl::Perl |
367 |
|
368 |
Sometimes you want to load old-style "perl libraries" (F<.pl> files), or |
369 |
maybe other weirdly named files. To do that, you need to quote the name in |
370 |
single or double quotes. When given on the command line, you probably need |
371 |
to quote once more to avoid your shell interpreting it. Common cases that |
372 |
need this are F<Config_heavy.pl> and F<utf8_heavy.pl>. |
373 |
|
374 |
Example: include the required files for F<perl -V> to work in all its |
375 |
glory (F<Config.pm> is included automatically by this). |
376 |
|
377 |
# bourne shell |
378 |
staticperl mkbundle --use '"Config_heavy.pl"' |
379 |
|
380 |
# bundle specification file |
381 |
use "Config_heavy.pl" |
382 |
|
383 |
The C<-Mmodule> syntax is included as an alias that might be easier to |
384 |
remember than C<use>. Or maybe it confuses people. Time will tell. Or |
385 |
maybe not. Argh. |
386 |
|
387 |
=item --eval "perl code" | -e "perl code" |
388 |
|
389 |
Sometimes it is easier (or necessary) to specify dependencies using perl |
390 |
code, or maybe one of the modules you use need a special use statement. In |
391 |
that case, you can use C<eval> to execute some perl snippet or set some |
392 |
variables or whatever you need. All files C<require>'d or C<use>'d in the |
393 |
script are included in the final bundle. |
394 |
|
395 |
Keep in mind that F<mkbundle> will only C<require> the modules named |
396 |
by the C<--use> option, so do not expect the symbols from modules you |
397 |
C<--use>'d earlier on the command line to be available. |
398 |
|
399 |
Example: force L<AnyEvent> to detect a backend and therefore include it |
400 |
in the final bundle. |
401 |
|
402 |
staticperl mkbundle --eval 'use AnyEvent; AnyEvent::detect' |
403 |
|
404 |
# or like this |
405 |
staticperl mkbundle -MAnyEvent --eval 'use AnyEvent; AnyEvent::detect' |
406 |
|
407 |
Example: use a separate "bootstrap" script that C<use>'s lots of modules |
408 |
and include this in the final bundle, to be executed automatically. |
409 |
|
410 |
staticperl mkbundle --eval 'do "bootstrap"' --boot bootstrap |
411 |
|
412 |
=item --boot filename |
413 |
|
414 |
Include the given file in the bundle and arrange for it to be executed |
415 |
(using a C<require>) before anything else when the new perl is |
416 |
initialised. This can be used to modify C<@INC> or anything else before |
417 |
the perl interpreter executes scripts given on the command line (or via |
418 |
C<-e>). This works even in an embedded interpreter. |
419 |
|
420 |
=item --add "file" | --add "file alias" |
421 |
|
422 |
Adds the given (perl) file into the bundle (and optionally call it |
423 |
"alias"). This is useful to include any custom files into the bundle. |
424 |
|
425 |
Example: embed the file F<httpd> as F<httpd.pm> when creating the bundle. |
426 |
|
427 |
staticperl mkperl --add "httpd httpd.pm" |
428 |
|
429 |
It is also a great way to add any custom modules: |
430 |
|
431 |
# specification file |
432 |
add file1 myfiles/file1 |
433 |
add file2 myfiles/file2 |
434 |
add file3 myfiles/file3 |
435 |
|
436 |
=item --binadd "file" | --add "file alias" |
437 |
|
438 |
Just like C<--add>, except that it treats the file as binary and adds it |
439 |
without any processing. |
440 |
|
441 |
You should probably add a C</> prefix to avoid clashing with embedded |
442 |
perl files (whose paths do not start with C</>), and/or use a special |
443 |
directory, such as C</res/name>. |
444 |
|
445 |
You can later get a copy of these files by calling C<staticperl::find |
446 |
"alias">. |
447 |
|
448 |
=item --static |
449 |
|
450 |
When C<--perl> is also given, link statically instead of dynamically. The |
451 |
default is to link the new perl interpreter fully dynamic (that means all |
452 |
perl modules are linked statically, but all external libraries are still |
453 |
referenced dynamically). |
454 |
|
455 |
Keep in mind that Solaris doesn't support static linking at all, and |
456 |
systems based on GNU libc don't really support it in a usable fashion |
457 |
either. Try uClibc if you want to create fully statically linked |
458 |
executables, or try the C<--staticlibs> option to link only some libraries |
459 |
statically. |
460 |
|
461 |
=item any other argument |
462 |
|
463 |
Any other argument is interpreted as a bundle specification file, which |
464 |
supports most long options (without extra quoting), one option per line. |
465 |
|
466 |
=back |
467 |
|
468 |
=head2 F<STATICPERL> CONFIGURATION AND HOOKS |
469 |
|
470 |
During (each) startup, F<staticperl> tries to source the following shell |
471 |
files in order: |
472 |
|
473 |
/etc/staticperlrc |
474 |
~/.staticperlrc |
475 |
$STATICPERL/rc |
476 |
|
477 |
They can be used to override shell variables, or define functions to be |
478 |
called at specific phases. |
479 |
|
480 |
Note that the last file is erased during F<staticperl distclean>, so |
481 |
generally should not be used. |
482 |
|
483 |
=head3 CONFIGURATION VARIABLES |
484 |
|
485 |
=head4 Variables you I<should> override |
486 |
|
487 |
=over 4 |
488 |
|
489 |
=item C<EMAIL> |
490 |
|
491 |
The e-mail address of the person who built this binary. Has no good |
492 |
default, so should be specified by you. |
493 |
|
494 |
=item C<CPAN> |
495 |
|
496 |
The URL of the CPAN mirror to use (e.g. L<http://mirror.netcologne.de/cpan/>). |
497 |
|
498 |
=item C<EXTRA_MODULES> |
499 |
|
500 |
Additional modules installed during F<staticperl install>. Here you can |
501 |
set which modules you want have to installed from CPAN. |
502 |
|
503 |
Example: I really really need EV, AnyEvent, Coro and AnyEvent::AIO. |
504 |
|
505 |
EXTRA_MODULES="EV AnyEvent Coro AnyEvent::AIO" |
506 |
|
507 |
Note that you can also use a C<postinstall> hook to achieve this, and |
508 |
more. |
509 |
|
510 |
=back |
511 |
|
512 |
=head4 Variables you might I<want> to override |
513 |
|
514 |
=over 4 |
515 |
|
516 |
=item C<STATICPERL> |
517 |
|
518 |
The directory where staticperl stores all its files |
519 |
(default: F<~/.staticperl>). |
520 |
|
521 |
=item C<PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT>, C<EV_EXTRA_DEFS>, ... |
522 |
|
523 |
Usually set to C<1> to make modules "less inquisitive" during their |
524 |
installation, you can set any environment variable you want - some modules |
525 |
(such as L<Coro> or L<EV>) use environment variables for further tweaking. |
526 |
|
527 |
=item C<PERL_VERSION> |
528 |
|
529 |
The perl version to install - default is currently C<5.12.2>, but C<5.8.9> |
530 |
is also a good choice (5.8.9 is much smaller than 5.12.2, while 5.10.1 is |
531 |
about as big as 5.12.2). |
532 |
|
533 |
=item C<PERL_PREFIX> |
534 |
|
535 |
The prefix where perl gets installed (default: F<$STATICPERL/perl>), |
536 |
i.e. where the F<bin> and F<lib> subdirectories will end up. |
537 |
|
538 |
=item C<PERL_CONFIGURE> |
539 |
|
540 |
Additional Configure options - these are simply passed to the perl |
541 |
Configure script. For example, if you wanted to enable dynamic loading, |
542 |
you could pass C<-Dusedl>. To enable ithreads (Why would you want that |
543 |
insanity? Don't! Use L<forks> instead!) you would pass C<-Duseithreads> |
544 |
and so on. |
545 |
|
546 |
More commonly, you would either activate 64 bit integer support |
547 |
(C<-Duse64bitint>), or disable large files support (-Uuselargefiles), to |
548 |
reduce filesize further. |
549 |
|
550 |
=item C<PERL_CPPFLAGS>, C<PERL_OPTIMIZE>, C<PERL_LDFLAGS>, C<PERL_LIBS> |
551 |
|
552 |
These flags are passed to perl's F<Configure> script, and are generally |
553 |
optimised for small size (at the cost of performance). Since they also |
554 |
contain subtle workarounds around various build issues, changing these |
555 |
usually requires understanding their default values - best look at the top |
556 |
of the F<staticperl> script for more info on these. |
557 |
|
558 |
=back |
559 |
|
560 |
=head4 Variables you probably I<do not want> to override |
561 |
|
562 |
=over 4 |
563 |
|
564 |
=item C<MKBUNDLE> |
565 |
|
566 |
Where F<staticperl> writes the C<mkbundle> command to |
567 |
(default: F<$STATICPERL/mkbundle>). |
568 |
|
569 |
=item C<STATICPERL_MODULES> |
570 |
|
571 |
Additional modules needed by C<mkbundle> - should therefore not be changed |
572 |
unless you know what you are doing. |
573 |
|
574 |
=back |
575 |
|
576 |
=head3 OVERRIDABLE HOOKS |
577 |
|
578 |
In addition to environment variables, it is possible to provide some |
579 |
shell functions that are called at specific times. To provide your own |
580 |
commands, just define the corresponding function. |
581 |
|
582 |
Example: install extra modules from CPAN and from some directories |
583 |
at F<staticperl install> time. |
584 |
|
585 |
postinstall() { |
586 |
rm -rf lib/threads* # weg mit Schaden |
587 |
instcpan IO::AIO EV |
588 |
instsrc ~/src/AnyEvent |
589 |
instsrc ~/src/XML-Sablotron-1.0100001 |
590 |
instcpan Anyevent::AIO AnyEvent::HTTPD |
591 |
} |
592 |
|
593 |
=over 4 |
594 |
|
595 |
=item preconfigure |
596 |
|
597 |
Called just before running F<./Configur> in the perl source |
598 |
directory. Current working directory is the perl source directory. |
599 |
|
600 |
This can be used to set any C<PERL_xxx> variables, which might be costly |
601 |
to compute. |
602 |
|
603 |
=item postconfigure |
604 |
|
605 |
Called after configuring, but before building perl. Current working |
606 |
directory is the perl source directory. |
607 |
|
608 |
Could be used to tailor/patch config.sh (followed by F<sh Configure -S>) |
609 |
or do any other modifications. |
610 |
|
611 |
=item postbuild |
612 |
|
613 |
Called after building, but before installing perl. Current working |
614 |
directory is the perl source directory. |
615 |
|
616 |
I have no clue what this could be used for - tell me. |
617 |
|
618 |
=item postinstall |
619 |
|
620 |
Called after perl and any extra modules have been installed in C<$PREFIX>, |
621 |
but before setting the "installation O.K." flag. |
622 |
|
623 |
The current working directory is C<$PREFIX>, but maybe you should not rely |
624 |
on that. |
625 |
|
626 |
This hook is most useful to customise the installation, by deleting files, |
627 |
or installing extra modules using the C<instcpan> or C<instsrc> functions. |
628 |
|
629 |
The script must return with a zero exit status, or the installation will |
630 |
fail. |
631 |
|
632 |
=back |
633 |
|
634 |
=head1 ANATOMY OF A BUNDLE |
635 |
|
636 |
When not building a new perl binary, C<mkbundle> will leave a number of |
637 |
files in the current working directory, which can be used to embed a perl |
638 |
interpreter in your program. |
639 |
|
640 |
Intimate knowledge of L<perlembed> and preferably some experience with |
641 |
embedding perl is highly recommended. |
642 |
|
643 |
C<mkperl> (or the C<--perl> option) basically does this to link the new |
644 |
interpreter (it also adds a main program to F<bundle.>): |
645 |
|
646 |
$Config{cc} $(cat bundle.ccopts) -o perl bundle.c $(cat bundle.ldopts) |
647 |
|
648 |
=over 4 |
649 |
|
650 |
=item bundle.h |
651 |
|
652 |
A header file that contains the prototypes of the few symbols "exported" |
653 |
by bundle.c, and also exposes the perl headers to the application. |
654 |
|
655 |
=over 4 |
656 |
|
657 |
=item staticperl_init () |
658 |
|
659 |
Initialises the perl interpreter. You can use the normal perl functions |
660 |
after calling this function, for example, to define extra functions or |
661 |
to load a .pm file that contains some initialisation code, or the main |
662 |
program function: |
663 |
|
664 |
XS (xsfunction) |
665 |
{ |
666 |
dXSARGS; |
667 |
|
668 |
// now we have items, ST(i) etc. |
669 |
} |
670 |
|
671 |
static void |
672 |
run_myapp(void) |
673 |
{ |
674 |
staticperl_init (); |
675 |
newXSproto ("myapp::xsfunction", xsfunction, __FILE__, "$$;$"); |
676 |
eval_pv ("require myapp::main", 1); // executes "myapp/main.pm" |
677 |
} |
678 |
|
679 |
=item staticperl_xs_init (pTHX) |
680 |
|
681 |
Sometimes you need direct control over C<perl_parse> and C<perl_run>, in |
682 |
which case you do not want to use C<staticperl_init> but call them on your |
683 |
own. |
684 |
|
685 |
Then you need this function - either pass it directly as the C<xs_init> |
686 |
function to C<perl_parse>, or call it from your own C<xs_init> function. |
687 |
|
688 |
=item staticperl_cleanup () |
689 |
|
690 |
In the unlikely case that you want to destroy the perl interpreter, here |
691 |
is the corresponding function. |
692 |
|
693 |
=item PerlInterpreter *staticperl |
694 |
|
695 |
The perl interpreter pointer used by staticperl. Not normally so useful, |
696 |
but there it is. |
697 |
|
698 |
=back |
699 |
|
700 |
=item bundle.ccopts |
701 |
|
702 |
Contains the compiler options required to compile at least F<bundle.c> and |
703 |
any file that includes F<bundle.h> - you should probably use it in your |
704 |
C<CFLAGS>. |
705 |
|
706 |
=item bundle.ldopts |
707 |
|
708 |
The linker options needed to link the final program. |
709 |
|
710 |
=back |
711 |
|
712 |
=head1 RUNTIME FUNCTIONALITY |
713 |
|
714 |
Binaries created with C<mkbundle>/C<mkperl> contain extra functions, which |
715 |
are required to access the bundled perl sources, but might be useful for |
716 |
other purposes. |
717 |
|
718 |
In addition, for the embedded loading of perl files to work, F<staticperl> |
719 |
overrides the C<@INC> array. |
720 |
|
721 |
=over 4 |
722 |
|
723 |
=item $file = staticperl::find $path |
724 |
|
725 |
Returns the data associated with the given C<$path> |
726 |
(e.g. C<Digest/MD5.pm>, C<auto/POSIX/autosplit.ix>), which is basically |
727 |
the UNIX path relative to the perl library directory. |
728 |
|
729 |
Returns C<undef> if the file isn't embedded. |
730 |
|
731 |
=item @paths = staticperl::list |
732 |
|
733 |
Returns the list of all paths embedded in this binary. |
734 |
|
735 |
=back |
736 |
|
737 |
=head1 FULLY STATIC BINARIES - BUILDROOT |
738 |
|
739 |
To make truly static (Linux-) libraries, you might want to have a look at |
740 |
buildroot (L<http://buildroot.uclibc.org/>). |
741 |
|
742 |
Buildroot is primarily meant to set up a cross-compile environment (which |
743 |
is not so useful as perl doesn't quite like cross compiles), but it can also compile |
744 |
a chroot environment where you can use F<staticperl>. |
745 |
|
746 |
To do so, download buildroot, and enable "Build options => development |
747 |
files in target filesystem" and optionally "Build options => gcc |
748 |
optimization level (optimize for size)". At the time of writing, I had |
749 |
good experiences with GCC 4.4.x but not GCC 4.5. |
750 |
|
751 |
To minimise code size, I used C<-pipe -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections |
752 |
-finline-limit=8 -fno-builtin-strlen -mtune=i386>. The C<-mtune=i386> |
753 |
doesn't decrease codesize much, but it makes the file much more |
754 |
compressible. |
755 |
|
756 |
If you don't need Coro or threads, you can go with "linuxthreads.old" (or |
757 |
no thread support). For Coro, it is highly recommended to switch to a |
758 |
uClibc newer than 0.9.31 (at the time of this writing, I used the 20101201 |
759 |
snapshot) and enable NPTL, otherwise Coro needs to be configured with the |
760 |
ultra-slow pthreads backend to work around linuxthreads bugs (it also uses |
761 |
twice the address space needed for stacks). |
762 |
|
763 |
If you use C<linuxthreads.old>, then you should also be aware that |
764 |
uClibc shares C<errno> between all threads when statically linking. See |
765 |
L<http://lists.uclibc.org/pipermail/uclibc/2010-June/044157.html> for a |
766 |
workaround (And L<https://bugs.uclibc.org/2089> for discussion). |
767 |
|
768 |
C<ccache> support is also recommended, especially if you want |
769 |
to play around with buildroot options. Enabling the C<miniperl> |
770 |
package will probably enable all options required for a successful |
771 |
perl build. F<staticperl> itself additionally needs either C<wget> |
772 |
(recommended, for CPAN) or C<curl>. |
773 |
|
774 |
As for shells, busybox should provide all that is needed, but the default |
775 |
busybox configuration doesn't include F<comm> which is needed by perl - |
776 |
either make a custom busybox config, or compile coreutils. |
777 |
|
778 |
For the latter route, you might find that bash has some bugs that keep |
779 |
it from working properly in a chroot - either use dash (and link it to |
780 |
F</bin/sh> inside the chroot) or link busybox to F</bin/sh>, using it's |
781 |
built-in ash shell. |
782 |
|
783 |
Finally, you need F</dev/null> inside the chroot for many scripts to work |
784 |
- F<cp /dev/null output/target/dev> or bind-mounting your F</dev> will |
785 |
both provide this. |
786 |
|
787 |
After you have compiled and set up your buildroot target, you can copy |
788 |
F<staticperl> from the C<App::Staticperl> distribution or from your |
789 |
perl f<bin> directory (if you installed it) into the F<output/target> |
790 |
filesystem, chroot inside and run it. |
791 |
|
792 |
=head1 RECIPES / SPECIFIC MODULES |
793 |
|
794 |
This section contains some common(?) recipes and information about |
795 |
problems with some common modules or perl constructs that require extra |
796 |
files to be included. |
797 |
|
798 |
=head2 MODULES |
799 |
|
800 |
=over 4 |
801 |
|
802 |
=item utf8 |
803 |
|
804 |
Some functionality in the utf8 module, such as swash handling (used |
805 |
for unicode character ranges in regexes) is implemented in the |
806 |
C<"utf8_heavy.pl"> library. |
807 |
|
808 |
Many Unicode properties in turn are defined in separate modules, |
809 |
such as C<"unicore/Heavy.pl"> and more specific data tables such as |
810 |
C<"unicore/To/Digit.pl"> or C<"unicore/lib/Perl/Word.pl">. These |
811 |
tables are big (7MB uncompressed), so including them on demand by your |
812 |
applciation only might pay off. |
813 |
|
814 |
=item Carp |
815 |
|
816 |
Carp had (in older versions of perl) a dependency on L<Carp::Heavy>. As of |
817 |
perl 5.12.2 (maybe earlier), this dependency no longer exists. |
818 |
|
819 |
=item Config |
820 |
|
821 |
The F<perl -V> switch (as well as many modules) needs L<Config>, which in |
822 |
turn might need L<"Config_heavy.pl">. Including the latter gives you |
823 |
both. |
824 |
|
825 |
=item AnyEvent |
826 |
|
827 |
AnyEvent needs a backend implementation that it will load in a delayed |
828 |
fashion. The L<AnyEvent::Impl::Perl> backend is the default choice |
829 |
for AnyEvent if it can't find anything else, and is usually a safe |
830 |
fallback. If you plan to use e.g. L<EV> (L<POE>...), then you need to |
831 |
include the L<AnyEvent::Impl::EV> (L<AnyEvent::Impl::POE>...) backend as |
832 |
well. |
833 |
|
834 |
If you want to handle IRIs or IDNs (L<AnyEvent::Util> punycode and idn |
835 |
functions), you also need to include C<"AnyEvent/Util/idna.pl"> and |
836 |
C<"AnyEvent/Util/uts46data.pl">. |
837 |
|
838 |
=item URI |
839 |
|
840 |
URI implements schemes as separate modules - the generic URL scheme is |
841 |
implemented in L<URI::_generic>, HTTP is implemented in L<URI::http>. If |
842 |
you need to use any of these schemes, you should include these manually. |
843 |
|
844 |
=back |
845 |
|
846 |
=head2 RECIPES |
847 |
|
848 |
=over 4 |
849 |
|
850 |
=item Getting rid of netdb function |
851 |
|
852 |
The perl core has lots of netdb functions (C<getnetbyname>, C<getgrent> |
853 |
and so on) that few applications use. You can avoid compiling them in by |
854 |
putting the following fragment into a C<preconfigure> hook: |
855 |
|
856 |
preconfigure() { |
857 |
for sym in \ |
858 |
d_getgrnam_r d_endgrent d_endgrent_r d_endhent \ |
859 |
d_endhostent_r d_endnent d_endnetent_r d_endpent \ |
860 |
d_endprotoent_r d_endpwent d_endpwent_r d_endsent \ |
861 |
d_endservent_r d_getgrent d_getgrent_r d_getgrgid_r \ |
862 |
d_getgrnam_r d_gethbyaddr d_gethent d_getsbyport \ |
863 |
d_gethostbyaddr_r d_gethostbyname_r d_gethostent_r \ |
864 |
d_getlogin_r d_getnbyaddr d_getnbyname d_getnent \ |
865 |
d_getnetbyaddr_r d_getnetbyname_r d_getnetent_r \ |
866 |
d_getpent d_getpbyname d_getpbynumber d_getprotobyname_r \ |
867 |
d_getprotobynumber_r d_getprotoent_r d_getpwent \ |
868 |
d_getpwent_r d_getpwnam_r d_getpwuid_r d_getsent \ |
869 |
d_getservbyname_r d_getservbyport_r d_getservent_r \ |
870 |
d_getspnam_r d_getsbyname |
871 |
# d_gethbyname |
872 |
do |
873 |
PERL_CONFIGURE="$PERL_CONFIGURE -U$sym" |
874 |
done |
875 |
} |
876 |
|
877 |
This mostly gains space when linking staticaly, as the functions will |
878 |
liekly not be linked in. The gain for dynamically-linked binaries is |
879 |
smaller. |
880 |
|
881 |
Also, this leaves C<gethostbyname> in - not only is it actually used |
882 |
often, the L<Socket> module also exposes it, so leaving it out usually |
883 |
gains little. Why Socket exposes a C function that is in the core already |
884 |
is anybody's guess. |
885 |
|
886 |
=back |
887 |
|
888 |
=head1 AUTHOR |
889 |
|
890 |
Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de> |
891 |
http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/staticperl.html |