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

I wonder if someone know if it is possible to install perl on a ZIP disk (100 Mb). Have anybody tried this?
I want to use it in an assignment at scool, I'm going to do some CGI scripts, which have to be connected to an Acess DB (which also have to be on the ZIP, the DB is abt 20 MB big)
Is it also possible to do some kind of 'minimum install' and choose the packages?

/wonko

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Perl on a ZIP disk?
by turnstep (Parson) on May 05, 2000 at 18:22 UTC
    You can just throw on the perl executable for whatever system you are using. It will easily fit on a zip disk, and the unix system version will *easily* fit on a zip disk. Just copy it over and add it to your path. If you are using some other system (e.g. Win9x) it is a little more complicated, but it that case I'd just throw the whole Perl installer on the zip disk and install it to the machine you are using. Or just ask the sysadmin to install it - the whole \PERL subdirectory is only about 12 Meg, as I recall.
[reply]
      Well, i _do_ use win NT. The whole issue is i can't install it on the computer, first because I'm not allowed, and second because I'm going to run the demonstration on a computer which i will not get my hands on until the actual demonstration... And now i realize I will need a webserver too. :(

      This is getting complicated...
      What i really want to do is to plug the zip in and play ;o)
      Has anybody done this?

      /wonko

[reply]
        You have no prior access to this machine - yikes sounds like one scary demo! Here's a possibility: You could make a binary executable of the app you want to demo and run it that way. See Perl2exe at DynamicStateOf course, if its perl you are demoing that this ain't much help.
[reply]
Re: Perl on a ZIP disk?
by chromatic (Archbishop) on May 05, 2000 at 19:47 UTC
    Installed, ActiveState 613 takes up just under 28 MB on an NT machine here. You might have to set path information for the NT session, but I don't see any problems there.

    If you need a small webserver, phttpd, dhttp, or Jellybean might come in handy. They're all written in Perl.

[reply]
      I will get you updated on this one, I wiil try to solve this...
      I think this is interesting, by myself...
      /wonko
[reply]
Re: Perl on a ZIP disk?
by allogenes (Beadle) on May 06, 2000 at 18:17 UTC
    Not exactly a Perl answer , but...
    if you have the resources, why not load your Perl,
    scripts and webserver on a laptop.
    Then just use a crossover to the NIC of the 'demo' machine
    and browse from there.
    Probably not the answer you're looking for, just a thought.
    "all was created from /dev/null and shall return to /dev/null"
[reply]
      Well, I've thought of that, too. But, put it like this; A laptop is #1 on my wishing list to santa this cristmas ;o)

      /wonko

[reply]
        Can you us know how the demo went, and what solution you finally used? Good luck!
[reply]

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