Generating an exe file on Win32

Luke Spencer has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have written a Perl script at work which needs to be used on a number of different computers and servers who don't all use Perl so I need to generate an exe. (I know some you don't like it but I have to.)

I want to use PAR (as this seems to be the most popular options) HOWEVER I am unable to find anywhere to download 'nmake' and install that as windows have taken it down. Is there any alternatice (besides Perl2exe)? Thanks very much

Comment on Generating an exe file on Win32

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Re: Generating an exe file on Win32 by dasgar (Priest) on Jan 15, 2013 at 00:37 UTC
What distribution of Perl are you using? Also, which version: 32-bit or 64-bit? If you are using Strawberry Perl, it already comes with the mingw compiler and dmake, which allows you to install modules from directly CPAN (including those that need to be compiled). For 32-bit ActivePerl, you'll need install mingw and dmake from the default ActiveState PPM repository. Then you'll be able to install modules from CPAN that need to be compiled. For 64-bit ActivePerl, I believe that there's more steps needed, but it's been over a year since I looked into it. Once you have mingw and dmake for you Perl installation, you can install PAR::Packer. Then you can use the pp utility from PAR::Packer to create your executable files. Another alternative that others might suggest is Cava Packager. That site will also recommend using Citrus Perl. I personally have not used either of those. UPDATE: Another alternative is ActiveState's PerlApp, which is in their PDK and Pro Studio packages that they sell. However, the my original post had free alternatives to perl2exe.	[reply]
Re^2: Generating an exe file on Win32 by Anonymous Monk on Jan 17, 2013 at 20:45 UTC
Hey using 32-bit, Strawberry perl. I have done all the above regarding PAR::Packer and it is still unable to work. Thanks for your help anyway	[reply]
Re^3: Generating an exe file on Win32 by dasgar (Priest) on Jan 18, 2013 at 00:19 UTC
I have done all the above regarding PAR::Packer and it is still unable to work. What's not working -- the install of PAR::Packer or creating the exe file? Since I've never had issues installing PAR::Packer using Strawberry Perl, I'm assuming that the issue is the creating of the pp utility. If that's the case, you share more information about what the error message(s) is that you're seeing and others can help you debug the issues.	[reply]
Re: Generating an exe file on Win32 by bulk88 (Priest) on Jan 15, 2013 at 06:11 UTC
Download and install the free Platform SDK from MS. It includes a C compiler and nmake. You have to run vcvars32 or vcvarsall to set the env vars correctly before using any of the progs from Platform SDK.	[reply]