http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=556980

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

A fellow on another list ran into a problem. They had an employee that compiled a script using perl2exe

Employee quits and nobody thinks about saving files before reloading the computer.

There was a tool called exe2perl but it appears that company is defunct.

Anybody know of a way to extract the a script from a perl2exe exectuable? Should I just tell him to contact indigostar?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Extract a script from a perl2exe executable?
by Asim (Hermit) on Jun 22, 2006 at 18:50 UTC

    Did some googling for you, and found a reference to a free C-based tool made in '02 that purports to work on Perl2Exe 5.03. Might be worth a test in a nice, secure setup...

    ----Asim, known to some as Woodrow.

      I swear I did look first! Either asleep or entered the wrong words. Thanks!!

      I knew somebody here would have an answer!

      found a reference to a free C-based tool made in '02 that purports to work on Perl2Exe 5.03

      That tool is a (harmless) hoax, isn't it ?

      Cheers,
      Rob

        Could be, thus the admonishment to test it in a secured environment. What's your reading on that code?

        ----Asim, known to some as Woodrow.

Re: Extract a script from a perl2exe executable?
by liverpole (Monsignor) on Jun 23, 2006 at 01:38 UTC
    It's an interesting coincidence that this question was asked, because just yesterday I was wondering the same thing about an executable I created about a year ago with perlapp, and since then lost the source code for.  After googling for a short while, I was directed back to Perlmonks, where I found this node.

    Just for fun (and being just a wee bit lazy to dig into the executable), I thought I'd try for a slightly different solution.  So I wrote a Perl script which would:

    1. Change to the temp directory holding the uncompressed files.
    2. Prompt the user to change the priority of the Perl process (to "High".  I later tried "Realtime" for fun, but that turned out to be a mistake, as I had thought).
    3. Prompt the user to run the executable created by perlapp.
    4. At this point, I would manually change the priority of the application to Low.
    5. The Perl script would continuously look for files as they were unpacked from the executable, and save their contents.

    I'm sorry to say this yielded no success for me; the Perl script was unable to detect any files prior to their removal, despite the application running at an extremely low priority.

    I don't know if this helps with the particular question of perl2exe, as I have no direct knowledge of that tool.  But if the mechanics of perl2exe are at all the same, perhaps a similar script would do a better job with intercepting the sourcefile while it's being extracted.


    s''(q.S:$/9=(T1';s;(..)(..);$..=substr+crypt($1,$2),2,3;eg;print$..$/
Re: Extract a script from a perl2exe executable?
by kabeldag (Hermit) on Jun 23, 2006 at 02:03 UTC
    I know that this will not help in your situation of restoration. But using PAR is probably better than using perl2exe.
    It's free. This is just my current opinion.

    /me puts a blanket over his head