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) 2003-2004 Douglas Thain and Copyright
       (C) 2005-2015 The University of Notre Dame.  This software is distributed  under  the  GNU
       General Public License.  See the file COPYING for details.

SEE ALSO

       •   Cooperative Computing Tools Documentation

       •   Makeflow User Manual

       •   makeflow(1)        makeflow_monitor(1)       makeflow_analyze(1)       makeflow_viz(1)
           makeflow_graph_log(1) starch(1) makeflow_ec2_setup(1) makeflow_ec2_cleanup(1)