LuaBinaries
Pre-compiled Lua libraries and executables.

Unix Installation

After downloading the files for your system you'll probably have two files named

  • lua-5.1_XXXXX.tar.gz - contains the library and includes for developers
  • lua-5.1_XXXXX_bin.tar.gz - contains the executables for end users

where XXXXX is a reference to your Operating System. Check the LuaBinaries Packaging documentation for more details on which files you should get.

Those files have to be expanded and their contents copied to the places shown below.

The common installation assumes the following directory structure (shown with the various LuaBinaries files needed).

$SYS_BINDIR (System executables, usually in /usr/bin)
    lua5.1
    luac5.1
    bin2c5.1

$SYS_LIBDIR (System libraries, usually in /usr/lib)
    liblua5.1.so
    liblua5.1.a

$LUA_INC (Lua include files, usually in /usr/include/lua5.1)
    lauxlib.h
    lua.h
    lua.hpp
    luaconf.h
    lualib.h

Make sure that the files on $SYS_BINDIR have execution permission and that $SYS_LIBDIR is in your system PATH. You may want to add $SYS_BINDIR to your system PATH too, but that is optional.

If you do not install in the common directory structure then you will have to:

  • add the $SYS_BINDIR directory to your system PATH, so the executables can be found
  • add the $SYS_LIBDIR directory to your LD_LIBRARY_PATH, so you can use the dynamic library
  • add "-L$(SYS_LIBDIR)" to the linker parameters in your makefile, so the libraries can be found
  • add "-I$(LUA_INC)" to the compiler parameters in your makefile, so the includes can be found