Anonymous Monk:

Aside from the info you've already received from the other residents of the monastery, here's what I do.

I used to occasionally have to ship executables with a serial number and licensee name in it. I'd never compile it in, as that would be a nuisance. Also, you never know how many (unintentional) cases of the string appear that you want to change.

So, what I used to do is to:

(a) precede the block of strings to patch with a preamble, and

(b) set each string to a known value, and

(c) provide plenty of expansion room in strings with variable length.

So if my fellow brethren will forgive me, here's the kind of code I'd use in C to hold my strings:

const char z_patchable_start[]="Start of patchable area";
const char serial_number[]="$$serial_number.....$$";
const char licensee[]="$$licensee..............................."
                      "........................................."
                      ".......................................$$";
const char z_patchable_end[]="End of patchable area";
[download]

Then, in my patcher program (written in Perl!), I'd scan for the location of the $$variable_name.$$ strings found between the markers, and then replace them with the appropriate values (not to exceed the boundaries of the $$..$$.).

Hope this helps...

--roboticus