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Changes for version 1.036_001 - 2017-03-22

  • Rewrite the library search (for "pp --link ...")
    • start with $Config{libpth} which is *not* the runtime loader (e.g. ld.so on Linux) search path, but rather the linker (ld) search path - but it's the best guess without having to grok /etc/ld.so.conf
    • augment that with $ENV{LD_LIBRARY_PATH} or similar
  • Rework how we determine the name under which a library should be installed
    • use objdump (on Linux and other ELF-based OS) and otool on Darwin
    • fall back to "chasing symlinks" otherwise
  • Fix RT#120038: [PATCH] Fix build for VS2015 (VC++ 14) and merge pull request from Steve Hay (shay@cpan.org)
    • makes PAR::Packer work with VisualStudio 2015. Thanks, Steve!
  • Fix RT#120041: --exclude gets confused by missing modules
    • guard against Module::ScanDeps::_find_in_inc() returning ()
  • Remove PAR_ARGV_*, PAR_ARGC stuff from script/par.pl and myldr/boot.c.
    • Dunno what problem this obscure way of passing the command line arguments from a packed executable to the custom Perl interpreter was intended to fix, but arguments pass just fine through execvp (or spawnvp) to perl_parse.
  • Only set the environment variable for the shared library search path (e.g. LD_LIBRARY_PATH) that is relevant for the operating system that we're running on
  • Use DynaLoader::dl_findfile to locate DLLs instead of homegrown stuff.
  • Fail early when packing with a version of Perl that's different frome the one PAR::Packer was built with.
    • Scenario: User has built and installed PAR::Packer (or got it pre-packaged), then installs a newer version of Perl, then does
      • pp -o foo.exe foo.pl
    • But running foo.exe then fails with
      • foo.exe
      • C:\Users\jon\AppData\Local\Temp\parlzcPb.exe: Perl lib version (5.24.1) doesn't match executable 'perl.exe' version (5.24.0) at C:/Perl64/lib/Config.pm line 62. Compilation failed in require at C:/Perl64/lib/Errno.pm line 10. ... C:\Perl64\site\bin/pp: Failed to extract a parl from 'PAR::StrippedPARL::Static' to file 'C:\Users\jon\AppData\Local\Temp\parl3swwQJc.exe' at C:/Perl64/site/lib/PAR/Packer.pm line 1184, <DATA> line 1.
    • Now, pp will fail and with a more useful message.

Documentation

Make and run Perl Archives
Binary PAR Loader
frontend to pp written in Perl/Tk.

Modules

Pack applications in a single executable file
Input filter for PAR
Bleach filter
Bytecode filter
Obfuscating filter
Content patcher
POD-stripping filter
PAR Packager
Base class for the PARL data packages
pp
PAR Packager