Stand alone erlang deploy

[Jose Castro]

This has probably come up before, but here goes: is there a simple way to deploy an erlang program/application without having to install erlang on the machine, that is: without modifying the environment or configuration and sistem files/directories.

The context of the question is this: A large transnational in Costa Rica (where I live) requires a system that creates processes, monitors activitye and supervises the processes on a pool of factory machines, my obvious recommendation was erlang. The company has a idental configuration policy for their machines, so system files, directories, registry, and environment variables should not be impacted (they could, but require higher management aproval, and the impact of the system does not justify changing the configuration of all the machines). Idealy we should be able to drop a folder in the machine, create an Icon that when clicked the application runs, thats it.

I know stand alone erlang but does not work with the current erlang release, and looking at reltool it appears that it does a minimal install, but an install just the same. Is there a "simple" way to do this? am I missing something?

On a side note, the lack of a good simple "one file executable" deployment tool creates a hurdle for the acceptance of Erlang in institutions with a strict machine configuration policy, since it makes it mandatory for management to know and approve the approach, and harder to sneak a grass roots erlang solution that surprises management.