Update par packer executable

Dirk80 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello wise monks,

I created some par packed executables with the command line tool "pp" as follows in a MSWin32 environment:

pp -a "additional_stuff" -o hello_world.exe hello_world.pl
[download]

Now I noticed that inside the "hello_world.exe" there are a lot of files which I want to get rid of.

That's why I wrote the following script:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use Archive::Zip qw( :ERROR_CODES );

my $zip_name = 'hello_world.exe';
my $zip = Archive::Zip->new( $zip_name );
die "ERROR: Could not open \"$zip_name\"!!!" unless defined $zip;

my @metadata_file_members = $zip->membersMatching( '\.metadata' );
$zip->removeMember($_) for ( @metadata_file_members );
$zip->overwrite();
[download]

The updated "hello_world.exe" now does NOT contain the .metadata files I wanted to get rid of. So this works fine. But now I have the problem that I have a normal zip file and not a self extracting file as before.

I looked into the examples of Archive::Zip and found "selfex.pl". Here I got the idea of how it could be done. But to be honest I have no plan how to create the par packed executable as it was before.

I've seen in the "script/main.pl" file within the par packed executable that this code could be the right place to look. But as said before I don't know how to create exactly such a self extracting executable as it was before.

Main question: How can I remove some files from a par packed executable?

Thank you a lot for you help.

Greetings,

Dirk

Comment on Update par packer executable Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Update par packer executable by Anonymous Monk on Feb 28, 2012 at 16:26 UTC
Main question: How can I remove some files from a par packed executable? Why? I'd recommend you don't, a lot of the files are there to make PAR and your program work :) But if you insist, you should look inside PAR::Packer	[reply]
Re^2: Update par packer executable by Dirk80 (Pilgrim) on Feb 28, 2012 at 19:23 UTC
The files I want to remove are files from myself which I added with the "-a" option. So the files I want to remove have nothing to do with the files which PAR needs to get the program work.	[reply]
Re^3: Update par packer executable by CountZero (Bishop) on Feb 28, 2012 at 21:14 UTC
That begs the question, "why did you add these files if they are unnecessary"? CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James My blog: Imperial Deltronics	[reply]
Re^4: Update par packer executable by Dirk80 (Pilgrim) on Feb 28, 2012 at 21:55 UTC
Re: Update par packer executable by Anonymous Monk on Feb 28, 2012 at 23:12 UTC
This ought to work `copy hello_world.exe hello_world.par HelloDirk80.pl hello_world.par pp -o hello_again_world.exe hello_world.par` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Update par packer executable by Dirk80 (Pilgrim) on Feb 29, 2012 at 08:27 UTC
Thank you alot. That's working. And the interesting fact I take from that is that if a par packed executable is copied to a "par" it can be changed easily with `Archive::Zip` and then packed again to an executable.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Update par packer executable by CountZero (Bishop) on Feb 28, 2012 at 18:49 UTC
What files in the packed file you want to remove? Perhaps it is a better idea not to include them to start with? CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James My blog: Imperial Deltronics	[reply]
Re^2: Update par packer executable by Dirk80 (Pilgrim) on Feb 28, 2012 at 19:28 UTC
Of course you are right that the better idea is not to include them. Because I have several executables this way I thought it would be nice to solve that problem with a script. So I started to use `Archive::Zip` and this lead me to the problem with the self extractable zip file. So now to be honest I'm very interested in the technique how to solve that problem. You are right that I could solve it easily if I'd rebuild the executables again without the files I want to remove now.	[reply] [d/l]