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) 2022 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)