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Description
-----------

[LUA](http://www.lua.org/) is a powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language.

Lua combines simple procedural syntax with powerful data description constructs based on associative arrays and extensible semantics. Lua is dynamically typed, runs by interpreting bytecode for a register-based virtual machine, and has automatic memory management with incremental garbage collection, making it ideal for configuration, scripting, and rapid prototyping.

Instructions for Mac OS X
-------------------------

-   [swig](swig "wikilink") must already be installed.
-   Download [Lua 5.0.3](http://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.0.3.tar.gz)
-   Untar lua-5.0.3.tar.gz into a folder of your choice
-   Edit the file *config*. In particular you need to uncomment the following lines to enable dynamic loading of libraries.

`LOADLIB= -DUSE_DLOPEN=1`
`DLLIB= -ldl`

-   Further set the installation prefix in *config* if you don't like the standard path.
-   Run

`make && make install`

-   Lua executable, libraries and headers are now installed.

### Set CMake paths

-   Set environment variables if you didn't use the standard path, e.g add the following lines to the *.profile* file in your home directory, if you installed Lua to *$HOME/local/lua-5.0.3*

`# add lua to PATH`
`export PATH=$HOME/local/lua-5.0.3/bin:$PATH `
`export CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/local/lua-5.0.3/lib:$CMAKE_LIBRARY_PATH `
`export CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH=$HOME/local/lua-5.0.3/include:$CMAKE_INCLUDE_PATH`

CMake is now able to find Lua.

Instructions for Linux
----------------------

N/A

Instructions for Windows
------------------------

N/A


The content of this page is available under the [GNU Free Documentation License 1.2](http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html).
