Last Updated: July 15, 2019

Deployment & distribution: PerlApp or ActivePerl OEM?

With thousands of people downloading ActivePerl and Perl Dev Kit to get started with creating applications or scripts with Perl, one of the questions we often get is – “When can I use PerlApp to distribute my application, and when do I need an OEM license to redistribute ActivePerl?”

So here are some basic guidelines:

  • You can take your Perl script, ActivePerl and PerlApp and wrap or compile the script into a single, simple-to-install standalone executable that can be redistributed without the need for an OEM license. The PerlApp feature in Perl Dev Kit makes it a popular product for creating applications when you don’t want users to touch your code or run scripts.
  • If you allow a user to interact with the underlying language (have the executable run scripts), or wrap up the entire language build into the executable, or if the user can see that the underlying language is ActivePerl, then an OEM license is required.

It’s not always black and white, so if in doubt, please contact us while you’re in development.

Other resources:

ActivePerl Community Edition

ActivePerl Community Edition license (for information & pricing OEM license and redistribution rights, please contact us.)

Title image courtesy of Arek Socha on Pixabay.

Angie Hirata

Angie Hirata

VP, Sales & Corporate Development Angie brings more than twenty years of experience in the software industry to her role as head of sales and corporate development at ActiveState. Angie re-joined ActiveState in 2017, after working for HPE from 2015 - 2017 as a part of the HPE-ActiveState Stackato acquisition. She loves to work with customers on their innovative new projects. Angie's successful career has included start-ups and large organizations since earning her Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia.