I see that several posters already gave arguments about possible bad reasons for trying to hide the code. The original poster doesn't say what the reason for wanting to hide the code is, but I'd like to add that there's very often a reason for wanting to hide the code that has nothing to do with selling the program and/or wanting to hide how it works.

When you are using shared CGI hosting and use a database, you need to put your password in the program code or in a file that is readable by the process. If the server does not use suexec or a similar mechanism, you are in trouble unless you can find a way of allowing execution without reading, which is exactly what the OP is asking.

I'm glad to hear that BSD has that feature, but from what I've seen, Linux doesn't. You can add a wrapper (which is what suexec does), but you have to be really careful to ensure that it is done securely.