Is there a good obfuscater for Perl code?

Question

Does anyone know of a good code obsfucator for Perl? I'm being ask to look into the option of obsfucating code before releasing it to a client. I know obsfucated code can still be reverse engineered, but that's not our main concern.

Some clients are making small changes to the source code that we give them and it's giving us nightmares when something goes wrong and we have to fix it, or when we release a patch that doesn't work with what they've changed. So the intention is just to make it so that it's difficult for them to make their own changes to the code(they're not supposed to be doing that anyway).

Answer 1

This isn't a serious suggestion, however take a look at Acme::Buffy.

It will at least brighten your day!

Answer 2

In this case obfuscating is the wrong approach.

When you release the code to the client you should keep a copy of the code you send them (either on disk or preferably in your version control as a tag/branch).

Then if your client makes changes you can compare the code they have to the code you sent them and easily spot the changes. After all if they feel the need to make changes there is a problem somewhere and you should fix it in the master codebase.

Answer 3

Another not serious suggestion is to use Acme::Bleach, it will make your code very clean ;-)