hide python code !

[Paul Boddie]

Fuzzyman wrote:
> Bayazee wrote:
> > can we hide a python code ?
> > if i want to write a commercial software can i hide my source code from
> > users access ?
> > we can conver it to pyc but this file can decompiled ... so ...!!

[...]

> You can distribute the compiled byte-code files (*.pyc) which are
> harder to turn back into source code.

As the man said, and I've seen various proprietary software companies
do just that.

> There was a product called decompyle which could do it, but although
> there is a version floating around which works for Python 2.4 I've
> never heard of anyone getting it to work.

I've got decompyle to work in the recent past (about a year or so ago)
- the trick was to find the Debian package and to make some minor
adjustments to the code to work with whatever breakage the 2.3 -> 2.4
upgrade caused.

[...]

> I never understand the knee-jerk reaction on this mailing list to
> answer people who ask this question by telling them they don't really
> want to do it...

Well, given the pace of technological development and the disregard in
some environments for perpetual backward compatibility, how much of
your infrastructure would you implement in vendor-supplied binaries,
especially when the vendor is a one man plus dog operation? When the
binaries don't work on your newly-upgraded system and the vendor is on
holiday (possibly for good), it doesn't look like a knee-jerk reaction
any more.

Paul