FAQ 3.21 How can I compile my Perl program into byte code or C?

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3.21: How can I compile my Perl program into byte code or C?

(contributed by brian d foy)

In general, you can't do this. There are some things that may work for
your situation though. People usually ask this question because they
want to distribute their works without giving away the source code, and
most solutions trade disk space for convenience. You probably won't see
much of a speed increase either, since most solutions simply bundle a
Perl interpreter in the final product (but see "How can I make my Perl
program run faster?").

The Perl Archive Toolkit ( http://par.perl.org/index.cgi ) is Perl's
analog to Java's JAR. It's freely available and on CPAN (
http://search.cpan.org/dist/PAR/ ).

The B::* namespace, often called "the Perl compiler", but is really a
way for Perl programs to peek at its innards rather than create
pre-compiled versions of your program. However. the B::Bytecode module
can turn your script into a bytecode format that could be loaded later
by the ByteLoader module and executed as a regular Perl script.

There are also some commercial products that may work for you, although
you have to buy a license for them.

The Perl Dev Kit ( http://www.activestate.com/Products/Perl_Dev_Kit/ )
from ActiveState can "Turn your Perl programs into ready-to-run
executables for HP-UX, Linux, Solaris and Windows."

Perl2Exe ( http://www.indigostar.com/perl2exe.htm ) is a command line
program for converting perl scripts to executable files. It targets both
Windows and unix platforms.

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