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Distributing perl

by robertinant (Initiate)
on Aug 09, 2006 at 23:56 UTC ( [id://566513]=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

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

Hello, I have written a couple of scripts that I need to distribute to customers. I do not want to rely on their installation on perl since and want to distribute a compact version of perl with probably only the modules that I have used in my scripts. My question is. Is this allowed? Can I distribute perl and it's modules without any problem? Many thanks, Robert

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Re: Distributing perl
by tilly (Archbishop) on Aug 10, 2006 at 02:19 UTC
    You can choose to distribute Perl under either the Artistic License or the GPL. I assume that you're distributing commercially.

    The GPL will allow you to either include source code in your distribution, or to include an offer, good for at least 3 years, to distribute full source code. You are not allowed to just point to where source code is available, though, because your distribution is commercial. (Many people overlook this fact.)

    The Artistic License will allow you to distribute if you include source, change the names of the executables and document differences, embed Perl in some program so that it is not externally visible, or make other arrangements with the copyright holders. (The last option is virtually impossible, don't try it.)

    So the full list of ways that you can get permission include:

    1. Include source
    2. Include an offer for source, good for 3 years
    3. Change the names of the executables and document the differences from the standard
    4. Embed Perl so that it is not externally visible
    5. Make other arrangements with copyright holders (this ain't happening, sorry)
    Do any of these things and you should be fine. Do none, and you're violating copyright law.

    I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, yada yada yada. (Technical note, by saying that I'm saying that if you follow my advice and get sued, you can't sue me for giving you bad advice. This is why lawyers WILL NOT give legal advice without being paid, because legal advice has liability associated with it.)

Re: Distributing perl
by jdtoronto (Prior) on Aug 10, 2006 at 00:30 UTC
    Yes

    Look at PAR for one open-source solution

    ActiveState offer PerlApp in the Perl Developers Kit, as a commercial alternative (the one I use)

    perl2exe can be found here and is another commercial alternative.

    jdtoronto

      I believe the question was more about distributing a core perl installation (though in some sense that's what the solutions you're proposing are too). If I understand correctly it kind of depends whether or not you can do that. For example, I don't think you can just redistribute ActivePerl, but with other builds (including your own) you usually can.

      (Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.)
        My reading of the OP's question led me to believe that he was lookig precisely at the sort of packaging that PerlApp, perl2exe or PAR produce. I have tried PAR and perl2exe, but settled on PerlApp because to be honest I find the entire Komodo-Pro package rather nice. As of right now I think we have around 2000 users running one of our products which is a Perl/Tk app.

        ActiveState's licence is pretty good and I have taken the liberty of including it here:

        So basically, you are limited in what you can do about distributing the entire package, but you can use parts of the package when distributing an application processed by a wrapping tool.

        jdtoronto

      I've tried PAR and PerlApp (from Active State). Both work well. In my tests (on my App) the big difference between the two was in startup speed, YMMV. In our case the difference was enough to justify the inexpensive PerlApp license fee.


      TGI says moo

Re: Distributing perl
by robertinant (Initiate) on Aug 11, 2006 at 15:39 UTC
    I indeed want to redistribute Perl itself commercially together with my scripts which are in source. Looking at the comments this should not be a problem as long as I pick the right distribution. I am not sure at this point if the ActiveState ActivePerl distribution is within this category. Thank you all for the quick comments! Robert
      If you do a little bit of work during development, you can ensure that your applications work with the version the current "latest" Perl - or better yet, based off of 5.6.1. It just seems like a huge, unecessary burden to make sure the client is using *your* version of Perl. If someone gave me an app + the Perl he wanted me to use, I most certainly no install his Perl...in fact, I'd just use my own rather than have multiple versions of Perl floating around on my machine (especially if it was a windoze box).

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