How can I build and link Lua core and few Lua modules in one .exe file

Question

I need to make portable application, that will run on Windows, Linux, MacOS and no install required. It must be one executable file and no other library files (.dll, .so ...). I will use ANSI C and recompile project for each platform. I want to use Lua scripts, so must embed Lua interpreter in my code. I need network and some other modules to write but i now that Lua already have modules for that purpose, so I will use them instead writing my own. How can I link all that together, Lua interpreter, Lua modules (LuaSocks i.e.) in one executable file that will load .lua script. Lua has "require" system that expects .dll to find, so I wondering what I should do, is it enough just to call functions without "require" statement.

Answer 1

You most certainly can do that (and it is not wrong!), although it is not trivial. The Lua core is made for embedding, to the point that you can just include the Lua sources into your own project and it "just works" :).

The deal is slightly different with modules - not many of them are suited for direct embedding. For example, this has been tried successfully for LuaSocket before and also asked here. The basic idea is to embed the sources of MODULE to your project and insert the luaopen_MODULE function into package.preload['MODULE'], so that require can pick it up later.

One way to go is to look at sources of projects that already embed Lua and other libraries, like LÖVE, MurgaLua and Scrupp.

If the goal of not having a single executable with no external libraries turns out not achievable, you can loosen up a bit and go for portable application - an application that carries all it's dependencies with it, in a single directory, independent of the system. This is what LuaDist was designed for - you use it similar to LuaRocks to install Lua packages. The difference is that these packages can be installed/deployed into a separate directory, where all necessary dependencies are installed too. This directory (a "dist") is fully independent, meaning you can move it somewhere else and it will still work.

Also, I dislike the idea of an application that requires installation (because it puts files all around my system) - uninstallation should be just removal of a directory :)