RE: Packing Lua-interpreter and modules into one library

["John Hind" <john.hind@...>]

It is quite straightforward to make your own version of the commandline 
interpreter, then you just create the Lua state and use C API commands to push 
the libraries into the preload table. You could have a look at my Grunt source 
code (www.luaforge.net/projects/grunt) - I do it with C++ but it could be 
easily adapted to C.

-----Original Message-----
From: lua-bounces@bazar2.conectiva.com.br 
[mailto:lua-bounces@bazar2.conectiva.com.br] On Behalf Of Jerome Vuarand
Sent: 23 April 2009 14:33
To: Lua list
Subject: Re: Packing Lua-interpreter and modules into one library

2009/4/12 Wolfgang Pupp <wolfgang_pupp@yahoo.de>:
> I'm currently trying to merge interpreter (LuaJIT) and some modules (lpeg, 
> lfs, md5) into one library (a windows DLL, using MinGW).
>
> My (quite naive) approach is to compile the C- based part of the modules 
> into object files and to link them with the interpreter's object files.
> I intended to just wrap the Lua- code in some luaL_dostring- commands (is 
> there any better way? I once ran across a LuaToC- converter, but that one 
> only worked for Lua 4.x).
>
> The problem arises with the loading of the modules- I assume that it would 
> be best to set the corresponding entries of the package.preload- table, 
> because that way, 'require' would still work as expected.
> But where to change the preload- table? I suppose that I have to edit one of 
> the interpreters source- files, but which one? Is there any designated 
> function stub/... for changing the preload- table?
>
> If there is a better way to do this, or if there exists already some 
> script/tool/etc. which does something like that (merge interpreter and 
> modules, or convert Lua- to C- code) please point me at it!

I assume the clients of your DLL are calling lua_newstate. It's the
code that creates the initial lua_State that's supposed to populate
the package.preload table, ie. your clients. You can eventually add
your libraries in linit.c so that clients calling luaL_openlibs have
your libraries loaded. The only solution to force your libraries to be
loaded with every new interpreter is to change the lua_newstate
function.

If your DLL has some higher-level function that create a Lua state
(like DllMain, or some plugin API entry point), you can populate
package.preload there.

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