NAME

       shc - Generic shell script compiler

SYNOPSIS

       shc [ -e date ] [ -m addr ] [ -i iopt ] [ -x cmnd ]
       [ -l lopt ] [ -ACDhTv ] -f script

DESCRIPTION

       shc  creates  a  stripped binary executable version of the script specified with -f on the
       command line.

       The binary version will get a .x extension appended and will usually be a  bit  larger  in
       size  than  the  original ascii code.  Generated C source code is saved in a file with the
       extension .x.c

       If you supply an expiration date with the -e option the compiled binary will refuse to run
       after  the  date  specified.  The message "Please contact your provider" will be displayed
       instead.  This message can be changed with the -m option.

       You can compile any kind of shell script, but you need to  supply  valid  -i,  -x  and  -l
       options.

       The  compiled  binary  will still be dependent on the shell specified in the first line of
       the shell code (i.e. #!/bin/sh), thus shc does not create completely independent binaries.

       shc itself is not a compiler such as cc, it rather encodes and encrypts a shell script and
       generates  C  source  code  with  the added expiration capability. It then uses the system
       compiler to compile a stripped binary which behaves exactly like the original script. Upon
       execution, the compiled binary will decrypt and execute the code with the shell -c option.
       Unfortunately, it will not give you any speed improvement as a real C program would.

       shc's main purpose is to protect your shell scripts from modification or  inspection.  You
       can  use  it  if  you  wish  to  distribute  your scripts but don't want them to be easily
       readable by other people.

OPTIONS

       The command line options are:

       -e date
              Expiration date in dd/mm/yyyy format [none]

       -m message
              message to display upon expiration ["Please contact your provider"]

       -f script_name
              File name of the script to compile

       -i inline_option
              Inline option for the shell interpreter i.e: -e

       -x command
              eXec command, as a printf format i.e: exec(\\'%s\\',@ARGV);

       -l last_option
              Last shell option i.e: --

       -r     Relax security. Make a redistributable binary which executes on  different  systems
              running the same operating system.

       -v     Verbose compilation

       -D     Switch on debug exec calls

       -T     Allow binary to be traceable (using strace, ptrace, truss, etc.)

       -C     Display license and exit

       -A     Display abstract and exit

       -h     Display help and exit

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       CC     C compiler command [cc]

       CFLAGS C compiler flags [none]

EXAMPLES

       Compile a script which can be run on other systems with the trace option enabled:

         example% shc -v -r -T -f myscript

BUGS

       The  maximum  size  of  the  script that could be executed once compiled is limited by the
       operating system configuration parameter _SC_ARG_MAX (see sysconf(2))

AUTHOR

       Francisco Rosales <frosal@fi.upm.es>

REPORT BUGS TO

       the author.