LuaRocks - A Declarative and Extensible Package Management System for Lua

Abstract

Abstract. While sometimes dismissed as an operating systems issue, or even a matter of systems administration, module management is deeply linked to programming language design. The main issues are how to instruct the build and runtime environments to nd modules and handle their dependencies; how to package modules into redistributable units; how to manage interaction of code written in dierent languages; and how to map modules to les. These issues are either handled by the language itself or delegated to external tools. Language-specic package managers have risen as a solution to these problems, as they can perform module management portably and in a manner suited to the overall design of the language. This paper presents LuaRocks, a package manager for Lua modules. LuaRocks adopts a declarative approach for specications using Lua itself as a description language and features an extensible build system that copes with the heterogeneity of the Lua ecosystem.

Taxonomy of Package Management in Programming Languages and Operating Systems

“…LuaRocks [8] is a package manager for the Lua ecosystem. It was developed building on our previous experience writing package management tools for GoboLinux and adapting it to the realities of a language-specific manager.…”

“…In this paper we draw on our own unique combination of experiences on all sides of this topic: developing a systemwide package manager for a Linux distribution [6,7], creating a language-specific package manager [8], and integrating system and language-specific package managers [7], as well as being simply developers and end users of other software. By building a taxonomy for package management and sharing our experiences with package management development in both the programming language and operating system spaces, we aim in this paper to frame the design choices, layers, and trade-offs attendant to package managers for developers, maintainers, and users.…”

Graceful Language Extensions and Interfaces

“…Many modern languages include a package manager and repository built into their distribution; examples include Perl's CPAN [179], RubyGems [169], and LuaRocks [128]. A user can install new libraries for the language using these tools.…”