jar like feature

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

I am developing a GUI using perl/Tk and wondering how I can bundle stuff into one file like Java's jar file. For example, in my application, I have two GIF files, three modules (pm files) and one PDF file. It would be nice if I can bundle all of them into one file and invoke it like this
perl -jar myfile.jar
the reason I am asking this is that if I invoke my application from a different directory, it is not finding my GIF files unless I attach the absolute path to it in my code

my $logo = $main->Photo(-file=>"$dir/samsunglogo.gif");
[download]

I can't just say
my $logo = $main->Photo(-file=>"samsunglogo.gif");
and let my application find the file!
Thanks

Comment on jar like feature Download Code

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Re: jar like feature by rjbs (Pilgrim) on Sep 21, 2004 at 18:42 UTC
The best-fit for this is, not surprisingly, PAR. It's like JAR, with a P instead of a J. PAR at CPAN has PAR::Tutorial to walk you through using PAR. rjbs	[reply]
Re^2: jar like feature by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on Sep 21, 2004 at 19:19 UTC
Also not surprisingly, Par-Par is much better-liked than Jar-Jar in ar Wars. (pronounced "Star-ar Wars") Caution:* Contents may have been coded under pressure.	[reply]
Re^2: jar like feature by gri6507 (Deacon) on Sep 22, 2004 at 16:35 UTC
I have noticed that PAR is not exactly stable yet. Not every GUI application can be simply PAR'ed up. I still get several emails a week from the PAR mailing list regarding some problem or another. If PAR works for you, great! If it doesn't, you may have to struggle with it for a while to achieve the desired effect.	[reply]
Re: jar like feature by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 21, 2004 at 19:21 UTC
You could do: `# use File::Spec if you want to be more portable. # The following supports at least unix and Windows. $dir = ($0 =~ m#^(.[\\/:])# ? $1 : ''); my $logo = $main->Photo(-file=>$dir."samsunglogo.gif");` [download] or `# use File::Spec if you want to be more portable. # The following supports at least unix and Windows. chdir($1) if ($0 =~ m#^(.[\\/:])#); my $logo = $main->Photo(-file=>"samsunglogo.gif");` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: jar like feature by TedPride (Priest) on Sep 21, 2004 at 20:09 UTC
I just tested, and $0 works on Mac (MacPerl), so it's probably good across all platforms.	[reply]
Re^3: jar like feature by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 21, 2004 at 20:12 UTC
I wasn't refering to $0, but to the path seperator. In unix, it's '/'. In Windows, it can be '\' and ':'. I don't know about other OSs. File::Spec contains functions to parse paths, but I was too lazy to lookup the syntax.	[reply]
Re^4: jar like feature by Anonymous Monk on Sep 22, 2004 at 02:35 UTC
Re^5: jar like feature by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 22, 2004 at 04:06 UTC
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Re: jar like feature by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Sep 21, 2004 at 23:19 UTC
I have two GIF files, three modules (pm files)... If the GIF files are in a known location relative to the .pm file, you could use Perl's __FILE__ variable in the .pm file. For example, in the Photo method, if a bald file name is given, you could look for that file in a directory relative to the .pm file (that trick is used by Acme::EyeDrops to find the .eye files relative to EyeDrops.pm).	[reply]
Re: jar like feature by chb (Deacon) on Sep 22, 2004 at 05:48 UTC
Use the FindBin core module to get rid of absolute paths. From the docs: "Locates the full path to the script bin directory to allow the use of paths relative to the bin directory."	[reply]