calculating require dependencies

["Aaron Saarela" <Aaron.Saarela@...>]

Hi,

 

I’m trying to figure out a way to pre-compute ‘require’ dependencies for a given module. In Python there’s a ‘ModuleFinder’ library that can calculate the set of modules used by a given Python script. I’d like to implement something similar for Lua. I have a lua runtime in my main thread. Scripts may come in from any number of background threads. When I load the scripts from disk in each thread I’d like to include the script dependencies along with it.

 

My first thought is to have a separate Lua_state in each thread and create a custom loader that would accumulate the ‘require’ dependencies. Is this the right approach to this problem?   Alternatively I thought about a modified luac that would generate bytecode for a module and all of its dependencies.  I’m thinking this might be a better approach in the long term. Has anyone implemented something to calculate these dependencies who can share some thoughts?

 

Thanks,

-Aaron