This is woof-perl, the Perl edition of Simon Buding's woof. It is a complete rewriting of the tool in Perl 5, with strict dependencies on standard packages and a few well-maintained main others. It mimics the behavior of the original tool, but for a few details. As in the case of the original tool it is thought to work under *nix systems, but could work also under Windows.

This version should be stable enough for use and forever, due to longevity and stability of Perl 5 and its APIs.

    Usage: woof.pl [-i <ip_addr>] [-p <port>] [-c <count>] <file>
           woof.pl [-i <ip_addr>] [-p <port>] [-c <count>] [-z|-j|-Z|-u] <dir>
           woof.pl [-i <ip_addr>] [-p <port>] [-c <count>] -s
           woof.pl [-i <ip_addr>] [-p <port>] [-c <count>] -U
  
           woof.pl <url>

    Serves a single file <count> times via http on port <port> on IP
    address <ip_addr>.
    When a directory is specified, an tar archive gets served. By default
    it is gzip compressed. You can specify -z for gzip compression,
    -j for bzip2 compression, -Z for ZIP compression or -u for no compression.
    You can configure your default compression method in the configuration
    file described below.

    When -s is specified instead of a filename, woof.pl distributes itself.

    When -U is specified, woof provides an upload form, allowing file uploads.
  
    defaults: count = 1, port = 8080
  
    If started with an url as an argument, woof acts as a client,
    downloading the file and saving it in the current directory.
  
    You can specify different defaults in two locations: /etc/woofrc
    and ~/.woofrc can be INI-style config files containing the default
    port and the default count. The file in the home directory takes
    precedence. The compression methods are "off", "gz", "bz2" or "zip".
  
    Sample file:

        [main]
        port = 8008
        count = 2
        ip = 127.0.0.1
        compressed = gz

    Can only serve single files/directories.

On a Debian/Ubuntu GNU/Linux system the minimal dependecies currently required are the following packages, but for core Perl packages:

    libany-uri-escape-perl
    libarchive-zip-perl
    libconfig-inifiles-perl
    libhttp-message-perl
    liburi-perl
    libwww-perl

Several methods can be used to install and distribute woof-perl using standard Perl distribution tools as alternative.

All methods require Perl 5.10 or higher, plus some basic tools:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install build-essential cpanminus

# RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
sudo dnf install perl-core cpanminus gcc make

# macOS (with Homebrew)
brew install perl cpanminus

This method uses Carton to manage dependencies locally:

1. Install Carton if you don't have it:

   cpanm Carton

2. Run the installation script:

   ./install.sh

   This will:

   • Install all dependencies locally in a local directory
   • Create wrapper scripts to properly set the environment
   • Make the command available as woof

3. Add the installation bin directory to your PATH:

   echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/woof-perl/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
   source ~/.bashrc

4. Test your installation:

   woof --help

This creates a single-file executable that includes all dependencies:

1. Install required tools:

   cpanm App::FatPacker Carton

2. Run the fatpacking script:

   ./fatpack.pl

3. The standalone executable will be created as woof-packed.pl

4. Distribute this single file to users who can run it directly:

   chmod +x woof-packed.pl
   ./woof-packed.pl --help

For enterprise environments where you need a private CPAN mirror:

1. Install Pinto:

   cpanm Pinto

2. Set up your Pinto repository:

   ./pinto-setup.sh

3. Install woof-perl from your repository:

   cpanm --mirror file://$HOME/.local/woof-perl-repo/stacks/woof-perl --mirror-only woof-perl

For completely isolated deployment:

1. Build the Docker image:

   docker build -t woof-perl .

2. Run woof-perl in a container:

   # To serve a file:
   docker run -p 8080:8080 -u $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $(pwd):/data woof-perl myfile.txt
   
   # To enable uploads:
   docker run -p 8080:8080 -u $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $(pwd):/data woof-perl -U

If you encounter missing dependencies:

# For Carton installation
cd ~/.local/woof-perl
carton install

# For standalone installations
cpanm --installdeps .

# Fix permissions on the executable
chmod +x ~/.local/woof-perl/bin/woof.pl

# Run directly with the full path
~/.local/woof-perl/bin/woof

# Or check your PATH configuration
echo $PATH