shc

The shc project is a highly versatile shell script compiler that is designed to take a script specified on the command line and generate C source code from it. This source code is then compiled, linked and stripped to create a binary executable. Although shc is not a compiler in the traditional sense, it can encode and encrypt a shell script and add an expiration capability to the generated C source code.

Upon compilation, the binary executable will behave exactly like the original script, decrypting and executing the code with the shell -c option. Unfortunately, it does not provide any speed improvement compared to a real C program. However, shc's main purpose is to protect shell scripts from modification or inspection.

If you want to distribute your scripts but do not want them to be easily readable by others, shc is an excellent tool to use. With its encryption and expiration features, your shell scripts' intellectual property is kept safe and secure.

The latest release of shc includes a license clarification relating to the rc4 implementation. So, if you're looking for a reliable and robust way to protect your shell scripts' integrity, give shc a try.