A definitive guide for compiling Lua from source code

Table of contents

Compiling Lua from the source code is an extremely easy procedure and every beginner in programming can do it, without any problems. I would introduce my guide on how to compile Lua from the source code.

Prerequisites¶

• Source Code;
• C compiler;
• Make utility (optional, usually together installed with C compiler);
• tar command installed or any other archive manager which supports .tar format (optional).

Download the source code¶

Lua is a completely free-to-use language (MIT license) and its source code can be downloaded from the official website. Let’s assume that we use the latest version in this case it is 5.4.7.

Compiler¶

Lua is written in ANSI C, so we will need any C compiler that can compile ANSI C code. I prefer to use https://gcc.gnu.org/.

Linux¶

For Debian-based GNU/Linux, you can install it with apt command:

sudo apt install build-essential

For the GNU/Linux using a DNF package manager like Fedora:

sudo dnf install gcc

MacOS¶

• On MacOS need to have brew package manage then use the command:

brew install gcc

• Also, XCode Command Line Tools is needed for MacOS.

xcode-select --install

Windows¶

For Windows, there might be different options: MinGW, BPF Compiler Collection (BCC), etc.

Compilation¶

After we download the source code, follow the steps from a terminal:

• Go to the Download directory (let us assume that it is ~/Downloads/).

cd ~/Downloads/

• Extract contents for the archive lua-5.4.7.tar.gz with tar command or any other your archive manager:

tar xvf lua-5.4.7.tar.gz

• A new directory lua-5.4.7/ with Lua’s source code is created.

ls -l
> doc/
> src/
> Makefile
> README

Building Lua¶

There is a command to detect your OS make help will print the supported operating systems.

make help
> guess aix bsd c89 freebsd generic ios linux linux-readline macosx mingw posix solaris

Let’s assume that we are on Linux and we have to use 4 threads for make.

make -j4 linux

Once it is compiled it can be installed also with make:

sudo make install

By default (INSTALL_TOP=/usr/local) following files will be installed:

• lua, luac -> /usr/local/bin
• lua.h, luaconf.h, lualib.h, lauxlib.h, lua.hpp -> /usr/local/include
• liblua.a -> /usr/local/lib
• lua.1, luac.1 -> /usr/local/man/man1

There is possible to change the path where Lua is installed, where xxx is the desired path in the file system.

INSTALL_TOP=xxx make install

Testing installation¶

Now Lua is available in your system:

lua -v
> Lua 5.4.7  Copyright (C) 1994-2024 Lua.org, PUC-Rio

If you see similar output in the terminal then congratulations you have compiled and installed Lua from the source code successfully!

Getting help¶

In case you get stuck, then open the file in the downloaded source code directory doc/readme.html. This readme is a good starting point to get help.

Advanced compilation¶

There is an option to set up Lua compilation with a variety of needs. For example, change the default buffer size or use only integers for numbers, change integer size to 32, 64-bits (with some tricks even 8 and 16 bits), float precision, memory limits, and lots more. Such a custom setup might be useful for microcontrollers and other IoT microdevices.

There is a file src/luaconf.h where all such settings are set. The file is pretty large and there is no point to go here through it. I would recommend opening in your text editor and just going through and checking what potential options are there.

Modifying src/luaconf.h is a good practice to try different setups and help better understand does Lua works internally.

Feedback

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