How to properly source/use lua file in `init.vim` config for neovim?

Question

I am new to neovim and I discovered that configs can be written in lua. I have been using init.vim(located at ~/.config/nvim/init.vim), but I wanted to start writing new configs in lua. What is the standard way(or best practices) for sourcing/using lua files in my init.vim ?

At the moment, I have gotten lua running in init.vim script by enclosing lua script between lua <<EOF and EOF tags. However, I don't get any syntax highlighting in vim for my lua code when I do this.

Answer 1

If you're just starting out, instead of init.vim you can place your configuration in .config/nvim/init.lua. E.g. instead of this in init.vim:

set nocompatible
set number
set cmdheight=2

You might have this in init.lua:

-- This is just a shortcut that allows us to use `o` as an alias for `vim.opt`
local o = vim.opt

o.compatible = false
o.number = true
o.cmdheight = 2

---

If you have an existing init.vim and you don't want to immediately convert everything into lua, you can add to your init.vim:

lua require('init')

And this will load the file .config/nvim/lua/init.lua.