[fpc-pascal] Create appending data to existing exe file?

[Lee Jenkins]

Tomas Hajny wrote:
> On 13 Dec 08, at 10:40, Lee Jenkins wrote:
> 
>> Is it possible to append data to an existing executable file and have that file 
>> run correctly?  I'm adding scripting features to one of our products and I 
>> wanted it so that our software can create a standalone executable for the end 
>> user.
> 
> First of all, this may be different for different platforms, so it's 
> probably rather important to know the platform you're talking about. 
> Executable files for some platforms have explicit support for 
> addition of some data directly into the executable file in the form 
> of the so-called resources and the tool necessary for adding the data 
> (resource compiler) may be directly shipped together with the 
> particular platform, in other cases appending the data outside the 
> real executable image may be more tricky (but it can be probably done 
> for all platforms in this or that way).

Windows 2K/XP/Vista, Linux GTK2 and possible MacOS when/if cocoa is finished.

> 
>> My plan was to create the base executable file which had the script engine and 
>> business logic to run the script and ship that with the product.  Then compile 
>> the end user's script and combine it with a copy of the "base executable" to 
>> produce the final executable file.
>>
>> Is this possible or is there a more feasible way of having a program create 
>> stand alone executables?  Normally, I'd just ship the fpc compiler and just 
>> compile the final exe behind the scenes but I don't want to make the source code 
>> to the "base" exe available.
> 
> Well, if you consider distributing FPC and compiling the final exe 
> "behind the scenes", an alternative may be distributing your base 
> executable in the form of units compiled with the particular FPC 
> version (i.e. without having to distribute source files) and then 
> create and compile just the program skeleton (calling functionality 
> from the pre-compiled units) plus your script.
> 

That is a good idea.  Precompiled units would obfuscate main code.  I'll give 
that a try.

Thank you,

--
Warm Regards,

Lee