AutoHotkey Community

[SoLong&Thx4AllTheFish]

See http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53129 for a short intro. UPX can cause compiled AHK scripts to be flagged as a virus/trojan

Should the UPX be removed from the Autohotkey installer, be optional (with a warning about false positives), or be kept in (so users have to remove UPX themselves)

Edit: feel free to motivate your choice

Edit2 Oct 2010: upx has been replaced with http://www.matcode.com/mpress.htm (mpress.exe in compiler folder) for ahk_l, see ahk_l discussion thread here http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=379672#379672

Edit3 Dec 2010:

[tidbit]

in the installer for AHK, there is that check list of things you want to include. UPX could be in that list.

for non-installers, it could be included, but renamed as something else so it's 'off' by default. if people want it on, they can just rename the file.
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[mouser]

I don't see any good reason not to install it with autohotkey.

but i think the important thing is to not have it used by default when compiling, and to warn the user seriously about the repercussions if they choose to activate it.

[Guest]

The real solution is to try & get UPX delisted as being bad...we report false positives on AutoHotkey but we should report UPX itself as false positive...

Also AutoHotkey Server time is 5 mins off (behind)...it's 3:33am EST now...

[tank]

the problem is upx is a common compression to use with viruses it is guilty by association
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[tomoe_uehara]

First of all, what is UPX, and why should I use it when compiling an ahk to exe?
Could UPX give me a better compression ratio, or speeding up my compiled script, or prevent disassembling, or what?
(I'm a newbie here, hehe )
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[trik]

[Lexikos]

I voted "make UPX compression optional" since I think it'll help solve a common problem, but TBH I don't use compiled scripts.

[tomoe_uehara]

Thank you trik for pointing that out =)
UPX stands for "Ultimate Packer for eXecutables".
Are there any better packer we could use to convert ahk to exe?
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[Guest]

[PhiLho]

One question could be: is UPX still needed, in days were a 10MB install file is said to be "small"?
I love small but efficient software, but UPX is only a kind of "cheat", and I was never convinced of its usefulness, particularly for software like AHK which isn't that big.
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[Zaelia]

I think UPX must be an option...

http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22975

[engunneer]

I have to agree with PhiLho here. the internet is such that 10MB files are not a /huge/ deal to send anymore, though on my crappy cell phone internet in Germany, it would take me a few minutes for 10MB.

since typical AHK scripts (without fancy stuff embedded) are less than 0.5MB without UPX, I would vote for removing it entirely from the install. I think it will help dissociate AHK from the stigma UPX has.
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(Common Answers)

[SoLong&Thx4AllTheFish]

For larger exe files you can always ZIP them too, plenty of portable apps are distributed that way.
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[tomoe_uehara]

Could I re-compress an UPX compressed file?
It's like having a zip file inside a zip file.
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