Recreate lost .pl

Mike77 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Monks, I've made a big mistake. I compiled a small script written in ActivePerl 5.8.4 with Perl2exe v8.4. Since then, my machine crashed and I lost my script. All I have left is the executable. I found an application called exe2perl, but all it created was a blank .log file. I've also found a c program called exec2pl, but I haven't used C in about 8 years and didn't what to start relearning it. I see that you guys have done this before. Does anyone have a quick way to decompile this??? Thanks

Comment on Recreate lost .pl

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Re: Recreate lost .pl by bart (Canon) on Dec 03, 2004 at 22:54 UTC
Like merlyn pointed out quite some time ago: perl2exe's encryption is pretty thin, and can easily be broken. Find out how, in this article: Perl2Exe EXEs Can be Decompiled	[reply]
Re: Recreate lost .pl by tall_man (Parson) on Dec 03, 2004 at 20:01 UTC
It was done once a few years ago on A real challenge, but no doubt the encryption algorithm has improved since that version. As A.M. pointed out, this sort of request comes up so often that there tends to be a suspicion of trying to decrypt a commercial application. Proof of bona-fides would be necessary.	[reply]
Re^2: Recreate lost .pl by bart (Canon) on Dec 03, 2004 at 22:58 UTC
perl2exe is not the same thing as PerlApp. The OP asked about the former, while A real challenge, the article you pointed to, only discusses the latter.	[reply]
Re: Recreate lost .pl by Anonymous Monk on Dec 03, 2004 at 18:57 UTC
Have you contacted the author of perl2exe? Yeah I believe you	[reply]