NAME Perl::Stripper - Yet another PPI-based Perl source code stripper VERSION This document describes version 0.10 of Perl::Stripper (from Perl distribution Perl-Stripper), released on 2017-07-11. SYNOPSIS use Perl::Stripper; my $stripper = Perl::Stripper->new( #maintain_linum => 1, # the default, keep line numbers unchanged #strip_ws => 1, # the default, strip extra whitespace #strip_comment => 1, # the default #strip_pod => 1, # the default strip_log => 1, # default is 0, strip Log::Any log statements ); $stripped = $stripper->strip($perl); DESCRIPTION This module is yet another PPI-based Perl source code stripper. Its focus is on costumization and stripping meaningful information from source code. ATTRIBUTES maintain_linum => BOOL (default: 1) If set to true, stripper will try to maintain line numbers so they do not change between the unstripped and the stripped version. This is useful for debugging. Respected by other settings. strip_ws => BOOL (default: 1) Strip extra whitespace, like indentation, padding, even non-significant newlines. Under "maintain_linum", will not strip newlines. Not yet implemented. strip_comment => BOOL (default: 1) | CODE If set to true, will strip comments. Under "maintain_linum" will replace comment lines with blank lines. Shebang line (e.g. "#!/usr/bin/perl", located at the beginning of script) will not be stripped. Can also be set to a coderef. Code will be given the PPI comment token object and expected to modify the object (e.g. using "set_content()" method). See PPI::Token::Comment for more details. Some usage ideas: translate comment, replace comment with gibberish, etc. strip_log => BOOL (default: 1) If set to true, will strip log statements. Useful for removing debugging information. Currently supports Log::Any and Log::ger and only looks for the following statements: $log->LEVEL(...); $log->LEVELf(...); log_LEVEL(...); if ($log->is_LEVEL) { ... } if (log_is_LEVEL()) { ... } Not all methods are stripped. See "stripped_log_levels". Can also be set to a coderef. Code will be given the PPI::Statement object and expected to modify it. These are currently not stripped: if (something && $log->is_LEVEL) { ... } stripped_log_levels => ARRAY_OF_STR (default: ['debug', 'trace']) Log levels to strip. By default, only "debug" and "trace" are stripped. Levels "info" and up are considered important for users (instead of for developers only). strip_pod => BOOL (default: 1) If set to true, will strip POD. Under "maintain_linum" will replace POD with blank lines. Can also be set to a coderef. Code will be given the PPI POD token object and expected to modify the object (e.g. using "set_content()" method). See PPI::Token::Pod for more details.Some usage ideas: translate POD, convert POD to Markdown, replace POD with gibberish, etc. METHODS new(%attrs) => OBJ Constructor. $stripper->strip($perl) => STR Strip Perl source code. Return the stripped source code. FAQ What is the use of this module? This module can be used to remove debugging information (logging statements, conditional code) from source code. This module can also be employed as part of source code protection strategy. In theory you cannot hide source code you deploy to users/clients, but you can reduce the usefulness of the deployed source code by removing information such as comments and POD (documentation), or by mangling subroutine/variable names (removing meaningful original subroutine/variable names). For compressing source code (reducing source code size), you can try Perl::Squish or Perl::Strip. But isn't hiding/protecting source code immoral/unethical/ungrateful? Discussing hiding/protecting source code in general is really beyond the scope of this module's documentation. Please consult elsewhere. How about obfuscating by encoding Perl code? For example, changing: foo(); bar(); into: $src = base64_decode(...); # optionally multiple rounds eval $src; This does not really remove meaningful parts of a source code, so I am not very interested in this approach. You can send a patch if you want. How about changing string into hexadecimal characters? How about ...? Other examples similar in spirit would be adding extra parentheses to expressions, changing constant numbers into mathematical expressions. Again, this does not *remove* meaningful parts of a source code (instead, they just transform stuffs). The effect can be reversed trivially using Perl::Tidy or B::Deparse. So I am not very interested in doing this, but you can send a patch if you want. HOMEPAGE Please visit the project's homepage at . SOURCE Source repository is at . BUGS Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature. SEE ALSO There are at least two approaches when analyzing/modifying/producing Perl code: B-based and PPI-based. In general, B-based modules are orders of magnitude faster than PPI-based ones, but each approach has its strengths and weaknesses. B::Deparse - strips comments and extra newlines B::Deobfuscate - like B::Deparse, but can also rename variables. Despite its name, if applied to a "normal" Perl code, the effect is obfuscation because it removes the original names (and meaning) of variables. Perl::Strip - PPI-based, focus on compression. Perl::Squish - PPI-based, focus on compression. AUTHOR perlancar COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 by perlancar@cpan.org. This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.