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starch(1) Cooperative Computing Tools starch(1)

NAME

starch - STandalone application ARCHiver

SYNOPSIS

starch [options] <sfx_path>

DESCRIPTION

Starch is a script that creates standalone application archives in the form of self-extracting executables (SFX). Users may specify the command, executables, libraries, data, and environment scripts associated with the application by specifying the appropriate command line options or by using a configuration file. starch is particularly useful for distributed computing, in that it makes an executable portable across different operating system variants.

OPTIONS

To create a SFX, simply specify the name of the SFX to create along with the <command> to execute and any other dependencies such as <executables>, <libraries>, <data>, or <environment> scripts.

If a <command> is specified, but no <executable> is passed, then the first token in the <command> will be used as the executable.

By default, starch will use ldd to detect any necessary libraries from the specified set of <executables> and include them in the SFX.

 -A
Do not automatically detect library dependencies.
 -C <cfg>
Use configuration file.
 -c <cmd>
Specify command to execute.
 -d <npath:opath>
Add data (new path:old path).
 -e <env>
Add environment script.
 -l <lib>
Add library.
 -x <exe>
Add executable.
 -h
Show help message and exit.
 -v
Display verbose messages (default: False).

Once a SFX is generated, you can use it as a normal executable.

CONFIGURATION FILE

The command line options may be stored in a configuration file and passed to starch using the starch -C option. The format of the configuration file is as follows:

[starch]
executables = echo date hostname
libraries   = libz.so
data        = hosts.txt:/etc/hosts localtime:/etc/localtime images:/usr/share/pixmaps
command     = echo $(hostname) $(date $@)

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The following environment variables will affect the execution of the SFX generated by starch:

SFX_DIR

Determines the target directory where the SFX will be extracted. By default this is /tmp/$hostname.$user.$basename.dir.

SFX_EXTRACT_ONLY

Only extract the SFX. By default it is extracted and executed.

SFX_EXTRACT_FORCE

Extract the SFX even if the SFX_DIR exists. This is disabled by default to as an optimization to avoid unnecessarily extracting.

SFX_KEEP

Keep extracted files. By default the files will be removed after execution.

SFX_UNIQUE

Use mktempd to generate a unique SFX_DIR target directory. This will prevent SFX_KEEP from working properly since the names will change in between invocations.

EXIT STATUS

On success, returns zero. On failure, returns non-zero.

EXAMPLES

Package the date program:



    $ starch -c date -x date date.sfx

Package the date program using a configuration file:



    $ cat data.cfg


    [starch]


    executables = date


    command = date


    $ starch -C date.cfg date.sfx

Run standalone date program with parameters:



    $ ./date.sfx +%s

Only extract the archive:



    $ env SFX_EXTRACT_ONLY=1 ./date.sfx

Run and keep extracted directory:



    $ env SFX_KEEP=1 ./date.sfx

Run with unique directory:



    $ env SFX_UNIQUE=1 ./date.sfx

Advanced example involving a complex shell command:



    $ starch -v -x tar -x rm  -c 'tar_test() { for f in $@; do if ! tar xvf $f; then exit 1; fi; done; rm $@'; }; tar_test' extract_and_remove.sfx


    $ ./extract_and_remove.sfx *.tar.gz

COPYRIGHT

The Cooperative Computing Tools are Copyright (C) 2005-2019 The University of Notre Dame. This software is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See the file COPYING for details.

SEE ALSO

CCTools 8.0.0 DEVELOPMENT