Attempt to embed Perl in C on Windows - perl

Question

I am trying to run the following example from
Deploy a Perl Application on Windows
with a simple "Hello.pl" (just prints "Hello" to STDOUT).
It fails. The .exe file is created but does not produce any output.
Probably this is my basic misunderstanding. Could you please point me in the right direction? Btw. the "lib folder containing all dependencies" in the project folder is empty since there are no modules in the "hello.pl". Is this a correct assumption?
Thank you very much!
The hello.c file:
#include <EXTERN.h>
#include <perl.h>
EXTERN_C void xs_init (pTHX);
EXTERN_C void boot_DynaLoader (pTHX_ CV* cv);
EXTERN_C void boot_Win32CORE (pTHX_ CV* cv);
EXTERN_C void
xs_init(pTHX)
{
char *file = __FILE__;
dXSUB_SYS;
/* DynaLoader is a special case */
newXS("DynaLoader::boot_DynaLoader", boot_DynaLoader, file);
newXS("Win32CORE::bootstrap", boot_Win32CORE, file);
}
static PerlInterpreter *my_perl; /*** The Perl interpreter ***/
int main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
argv[1] = "-Ilib";
argv[2] = "hello.pl";
PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env);
my_perl = perl_alloc();
perl_construct(my_perl);
PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END;
perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, argc, argv, (char **)NULL);
perl_run(my_perl);
perl_destruct(my_perl);
perl_free(my_perl);
PERL_SYS_TERM();
}
The perl file to build the compiler command:
#!/perl
use strict;
use warnings FATAL => qw(all);
use ExtUtils::Embed;
print "\nBuilding Hello\n";
my $gcc_cmd = join( ' ' , 'C:\Perl_516_portable\c\bin\gcc -Wall -mwindows -o K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\hello K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\hello.c',
&ccopts, &ldopts );
print STDOUT $gcc_cmd , "\n";
system( $gcc_cmd );
The output:
----------------------------------------------
Perl executable: C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\bin\perl.exe
Perl version : 5.16.3 / MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
C:\Perl_516_portable>perl K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\building_3.pl
Building Hello
C:\Perl_516_portable\c\bin\gcc -Wall -mwindows -o K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\hello K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\hello.c -s -O2 -DWIN32 -DPERL_TEXTMODE_SCRIPTS -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS -fno-strict-aliasing -mms-bitfields -I"C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE" -s -L"C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE" -L"C:\Perl_516_portable\c\lib" C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE\libperl516.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libmoldname.a C:Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libkernel32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libuser32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libgdi32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libwinspool.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libcomdlg32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libadvapi32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libshell32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libole32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\liboleaut32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libnetapi32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libuuid.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libws2_32.a C:Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libmpr.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libwinmm.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libversion.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libodbc32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libodbccp32.a C:\Perl_516_portable\c\i686-w64-mingw32\lib\libcomctl32.a
In file included from C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/sys/socket.h:180:0,
from C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/win32.h:356,
from C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/win32thread.h:4,
from C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/perl.h:2834,
from K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\hello.c:2:
C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/win32.h:361:26: warning: "/*" within comment [-Wcomment]
C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/win32.h:362:33: warning: "/*" within comment [-Wcomment]
In file included from C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/win32thread.h:4:0,
from C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/perl.h:2834,
from K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\hello.c:2:
C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/win32.h:361:26: warning: "/*" within comment [-Wcomment]
C:\Perl_516_portable\perl\lib\CORE/win32.h:362:33: warning: "/*" within comment [-Wcomment]
K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\hello.c: In function 'main':
K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\hello.c:37:1: warning: control reaches end of non-void function [-Wreturn-type]

Answer 1

It will not work if you are in a different path than your script and c files. Remove the absolute paths K:\Scripts\Embed\Hello_3\
The "lib folder containing all dependencies" in the project folder is empty since there are no modules in the "hello.pl". Is this a correct assumption?
If hello.pl does not use any libs, yes.
int main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
argv[1] = "-Ilib";
argv[2] = "hello.pl";
...
This will only work if argc is 2, i.e. you provided 2 args to your hello.exe.
You rather need to check argc and extend argv if < 2, and set argc to 2 if < 2.
Step into the executable with gdb and see what's going wrong. Compile with -g then.
In the long term, the established solution is to use PAR::Dist, or one of the commercial packers. Using the real compiler perlcc on Windows is a bit tricky.