Safest .exe creation

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

Does anyone have experience with the tools that create .exe files from perl scripts?

I've just read that perlcc is not recommended for any kind of production code. Do either perl2exe or perlapp meet that standard?

I need to create stable, solid, bullet-proof, stand-alone executables that are suitable for distribution to end users. I want to distribute my apps free, but they have to be reliable.

Thanks for any feedback.

Comment on Safest .exe creation

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Re: Safest .exe creation by bart (Canon) on Nov 21, 2007 at 19:33 UTC
Free tools: PAR::Packer (PAR), PerlBin, Cava Packager. All are maintained, work well with the latest Perl, and are reliable. See my blog post for some use anecdotes. And then there is TinyPerl, which hasn't been updated in 4 years, only works with the perl version it was built with (5.8.0 IIRC), and at least using glob on it makes it crash. Oh, and yes, both PerlApp (ActiveState) and perl2exe (IndigoStar) are reliable commercial tools.	[reply]
Re: Safest .exe creation by okram (Monk) on Nov 21, 2007 at 20:09 UTC
Hi This is the setup that I'm using on Win32: Activestate Perl from activestate.com "bribes" repository for PPM Install PAR and PAR-Packer from Bribes To add the "bribes" repository: Launch PPM Edit / Preferences Tab "Repositories" Add: Name: bribes URL: http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/package.lst Click ADD Now you'll be able to install PAR and PAR-Packer from Bribes, which works like a charm. You will just launch the following: c:\perl\site\bin\pp.bat -o file.exe file.pl or c:\perl\site\bin\pp.bat --gui -o file.exe file.pl depending on whether it's a console or Tk application. I have this setup on three windows machines and so far it seems _the_ best option. I've tried to use strawberry/vanilla perl as well, and also activestate without the "bribes" repository, but I wasn't able to get both of these running: Tk PAR::Packer The aforementioned setup instead gives a workable installation where you can "compile" EXE using standard Perl modules, and even Tk. If you "care" about crypting your perl files, you might want to have a look at PAR::Filter::Crypto but I haven't actually tested it yet :(	[reply]