Erlang: Use run_erl on a [local] release?

Question

I want to use run_erl to start up a daemon version of my release, but I don't want to have to officially install it, and create an entry in $ROOTDIR/releases and all that. Unfortunately, run_erl seems to depend on a little bootstrapping stuff that happens in release_handler:unpack_release/1. Is there any way to use run_erl on a release that was created with the [local] option?:

systools:make_script("example", [local]).

Answer 1

Well, I'd been creating a target system following instructions from a couple tutorials, but it looks like just using the target_system.erl module here:

http://erlang.org/doc/system%5Fprinciples/create%5Ftarget.html

...does what I want. It creates a self-contained system that I can put anywhere (not mucking up $ROOTDIR) and has the ability to be booted in embedded mode.