lua-link

A linker for lua code

lua-link puts all your dependencies inside one file, so that you can embed it easily.

How does it work ?

It just puts the content of your file as functions inside package.preload.

Let's say your lua program has two files: main.lua and its dependency dep.lua

-- main.lua

local m = require "mymodule"

print "hello from main.lua"
m.sayhello()

-- dep.lua

return {
	sayhello= function() print("hello from dep.lua") end
}

Just link it :

$ ./lua-link main=main.lua mymodule=dep.lua -o myapp.lua

Now all your dependencies are inside myapp.lua

$ rm main.lua dep.lua
$ lua myapp.lua
hello from main.lua
hello from dep.lua

As you can see, it just puts your files inline.

-- myapp.lua

package.preload['main'] = function()
	local m = require "mymodule"

	print "hello from main.lua"
	m.sayhello()
end

package.preload['mymodule'] = function()
	return {
		sayhello= function() print("hello from dep.lua") end
	}
end

require('main')

So it's not perfect:

• It only works if your code calls require. It wont't work with dofile
• You can't embed bytecode (but you can easily compile the file produced)
• It alterates debug informations

Pull requests are open !