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)