luast

Build standalone Lua executables with cross-compilation support.

Features

Cross-Compilation Build for Linux, macOS, and Windows from any platform. Powered by Zig.	Standalone Executables Single-file executables with no runtime dependencies. Linux uses musl libc.
C Library Support Built-in support for luafilesystem, lpeg, lua-cjson, lsqlite3, luasocket.	Asset Embedding Embed data files and directories directly into the binary.

Quick Start

# Build for current platform
luast myapp

# Build for multiple targets
luast -t linux-x86_64 -t darwin-arm64 -t windows-x86_64 myapp

# Standalone mode (no rockspec)
luast -m app.lua myapp

Usage

luast [options] [modules...] [output-name]

Options:
    -h, --help      Show help message
    -q, --quiet     Only show errors and warnings
    -v, --verbose   Show detailed output
    -m, --main      Main entry point (standalone mode)
    -c, --clib      C library dependency (can be repeated)
    -e, --embed     Embed data file/directory (can be repeated)
    -r, --rockspec  Path to rockspec file (default: auto-detect)
    -t, --target    Target platform (default: native)

Targets

Target	Output
linux-x86_64, linux-arm64	Static ELF (musl)
darwin-x86_64, darwin-arm64	Mach-O
windows-x86_64, windows-arm64	PE32+

Environment

Variable	Description	Default
BUILD_DIR	Build directory	.build
LUAST_CACHE	Cache directory	~/.cache/luast
LUA_VERSION	Lua version	5.4.8

Standalone Mode

Build without a rockspec:

luast -m app.lua myapp
luast -m app.lua lib/ src/ myapp
luast -m app.lua -c lfs -c lpeg myapp

Include LuaRocks modules by path:

luarocks install --local inspect
luast -m app.lua ~/.luarocks/share/lua/5.4/inspect.lua myapp

Embedding Files

luast -m app.lua -e templates/ -e config.json myapp

Access at runtime:

local embed = require("luast.embed")
local html = embed.read("templates/page.html")

C Libraries

Built-in support:

Library	Notes
luafilesystem
lpeg
lua-cjson
lsqlite3complete	Includes SQLite3
luasocket	Includes socket.lua, ltn12.lua, mime.lua

Custom Libraries

Add via .luastrc:

return {
    mylib = {
        url = "https://github.com/user/mylib.git",
        sources = { "src/mylib.c" },
    },
}

GitHub Action

- uses: owloops/luast@main
  with:
    output: myapp
    targets: linux-x86_64 linux-arm64 darwin-arm64 windows-x86_64

Input	Description	Default
output	Binary name	Package name
rockspec	Rockspec path	Auto-detect
targets	Space-separated targets	Native

Requirements

• Linux or macOS
• Lua 5.1+
• git, curl or wget

Zig is downloaded automatically.

Limitations

• Linux binaries use musl (not glibc)
• No automatic LuaRocks dependency resolution
• No LuaJIT support
• No OpenSSL/TLS support

Development

luacheck luast      # Lint
stylua luast        # Format

Credits

Based on luastatic by ers35. Powered by Zig.

License

MIT