What do I need to build Lua?
Lua is implemented in pure ANSI C and compiles unmodified in all known platforms. All you need to build Lua is an ANSI C compiler (gcc is a popular one). Lua also compiles cleanly as C++. If you are building Lua in a Unix system (like Linux or Mac OS X), then you probably already have everything you need and simply typing make should do it. (You’ll only have to choose a suitable platform.) Otherwise, see the next question. In any case, for full instructions see the file INSTALL that comes with the distribution. Chapter 1 of the book Beginning Lua Programming contains detailed instructions for downloading, building, and installing Lua. Here are simple instructions for Linux: wget http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.1.4.tar.gz # or curl -R -O http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.1.4.tar.gz tar zxf lua-5.1.4.tar.gz cd lua-5.1.4 make linux test If you don’t have the time or the inclination to compile Lua yourself, get a binary from LuaBinaries. If you only want to try Lua, try the live demo.
