Simple lua build for Windows
Simple said, I need lua and I need it under Windows. I need it precisely to be able to debug the lua scripted extensions and plugins that I realize under 2 of my favourite editors SciTE and Textadept. To achieve this debugging, there are a lot of modules out there, all of them relying on a module called luasocket.
So far, so good, but when you work under Windows it becomes really difficult to get the binaries for this luasocket module, as it is C based:
- I need the module under Windows
- I need it in Win32 and also x64 release
- I have Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition
I searched and searched, stumbled on LuaRocks - The Lua package manager, but never made it to correctly get this module, in the right release, compiled with Visual Studio...
So first step, is to build lua. I found this site: How to compile Lua 5.3.5 for Windows | The curse of Dennis D. Spreen It works correctly, and was a solid base for my needs.
I added some resource files to describe the versions, with a lua icon, and a build script, that enables to build on Windows, with Visual Studio 2017 installed. The script produces the binaries and the includes for a usable lua, under those sub-directories:
- Win32
- x64
Each of those build sub-directory contains:
- bin, the executable binaries: "lua53.dll", "lua53.exe", "luac53.exe"
- include, the needed includes for compiling lua modules
- lib, the libraries "lua53.lib" (that matches "lua53.dll") and "lua53-static.lib" (that is a self contained library for a complete lua)
- Get the lua sources from Lua: download area and put them under src sub-directory
- If needed, edit the resource files to modify / adapt the version of lua
- In a DOS console, under the lua\src sub-directory, launch the build of the lua binaries:
Buid-lua.cmd Win32
Buid-lua.cmd x64