How to add directories to module search in Lua?
I'm having a problem with the require function, I want it to look for a lua file, but I don't want to specify the folder, and my lua is installed on another disk, I'll put a photo to see the error
As you can see the highlighted part eh the file I want to use, is in the folder lib there in the corner, I gave a CD C:\ in the terminal to test some things and saw that this giving this error, I think I just have to specify the disk, but I do not want specify the folder because on someone else's computer will not work, why the folder has a different name, so how can I do?
1 answers
Lua searches for modules using the variable package.path which in turn is started by reading a system variable called LUA_PATH.
To add a new place to the module search, you simply change one of these variables.
If you want the folder to be always available you will want to edit the LUA_PATH.
In Windows vc should go to System / Advanced System Settings / environment variables and add the LUA_PATH or edit if it already exists. No Linux you will put this setup on your .bashrc.
Ex:
LUA_PATH = ;;D:\libs\lua\?.lua
The ;; at the beginning causes lua to load the default libs at the beginning of the path. Note that you have a query ? in the pattern. It serves to mark the place where what you type in require will enter.
Ex: consider this directory structure:
D:
|- libs
|- lua
|- math
|- linearAlgebra.lua
With LUA_PATH defined as above you can do this in your lua code:
local la = require "math.linearAlgebra"
local v = la.dot({1, 0}, {1, 2})
...
The convention is to use a dot . where there would be a directory separator (so math.linearAlgebra and not math\\linearAlgebra)
And also note that .lua is not specified because it has already been defined in LUA_PATH.
If you want to add more search patterns, just separate them with ;.
And finally it is important to know that all this also applies to package.path.