+LuaJIT is not much more difficult to install than Lua itself. +Just unpack the distribution file, change into the newly created +directory and follow the instructions below. +
+
+For the impatient: make linux && sudo make install
+Replace linux with e.g. bsd or macosx depending on your OS.
+
+In case you've missed this in Features: +LuaJIT only works on x86 (i386+) systems right now. Support for +other architectures may be added in future versions. +
+ +Configuring LuaJIT
++LuaJIT is (deliberately) not autoconfigured — the +defaults should work fine on most systems. But please check the +system-specific instructions below. +
++The following three files hold all configuration information: +
+-
+
- Makefile holds settings for installing LuaJIT. +
- src/Makefile holds settings for compiling LuaJIT. +
- src/luaconf.h sets a multitude of configuration +variables. +
+If this is your first build then it's better not to give into +the temptation to tweak every little setting. The standard +configuration provides sensible defaults (IMHO). +
++One particular setting you might want to change is the installation +path. Note that you need to modify both the top-level Makefile +and src/luaconf.h (right at the start) to take +effect. +
++If you have trouble getting Coco to work, you can disable it by +uncommenting the COCOFLAGS= -DCOCO_DISABLE line in +src/Makefile. But note that this effectively disables +yielding from coroutines for JIT compiled functions. +
++A few more settings need to be changed if you want to +Debug LuaJIT itself. +Application debugging can be turned on/off at runtime. +
+ +Upgrading From Previous Versions
++It's important to keep the LuaJIT core and the add-on modules in sync. +Be sure to delete any old versions of LuaJIT modules from the +Lua module search path (check the current directory, too!). +
++Lua files compiled to bytecode may be incompatible if the underlying +Lua core has changed (like from Lua 5.1 alpha to Lua 5.1 +final between LuaJIT 1.0.3 and LuaJIT 1.1.0). The same +applies to any +» loadable C modules +(shared libraries, DLLs) which need to be recompiled with the new +Lua header files. +
++Compiled bytecode and loadable C modules are fully compatible and +can be freely exchanged between LuaJIT and the same +version of Lua it is based on. Please verify that LUA_RELEASE +in src/lua.h is the same in both distributions. +
+ +Building LuaJIT
+ +Makefile Targets
++The Makefiles have a number of targets for various operating systems: +
+ +| System | Build Command | Notes |
| Linux i386 | make linux | |
| BSD i386 | make bsd | FreeBSD, NetBSD or OpenBSD |
| Mac OS X on Intel | make macosx | Check src/Makefile for OS X < 10.4 |
| Solaris x86 | make solaris | GCC only, SunCC miscompiles LuaJIT |
| MinGW (Win32) | make mingw | cross-MinGW: must be 1st in PATH |
| Cygwin | make cygwin | |
| POSIX on x86 | make posix | Check Portability Req. for Coco, too |
| Generic x86 | make generic | Check Portability Req. for Coco, too |
+You may want to enable interactive line editing for the stand-alone +executable. There are extra targets for Linux, BSD and Mac OS X: +make linux_rl, make bsd_rl +and make macosx_rl. +
+ +MSVC (Win32)
++First check out etc\luavs.bat if it suits your needs. Then try +running it from the MSVC command prompt (start it from the toplevel directory). +
++Another option is to set up your own MSVC project: +
++Change to the src directory +and create a new DLL project for lua51.dll. +Add all C files to it except for lua.c, luac.c +and print.c. Add the ..\dynasm directory +to the include path and build the DLL. +
++Next create a new EXE project for luajit.exe. +Add lua.c to it and link with the import library +lua51.lib created for lua51.dll. Build +the executable. +
+ +Installation
+ +POSIX systems
++Run make install from the top-level directory. +You probably need to be the root user before doing so, i.e. use +sudo make install or su - root +before the make install. +
+
+By default this installs only:
+ /usr/local/bin/luajit — The stand-alone executable.
+ /usr/local/lib/lua/5.1 — C module directory.
+ /usr/local/share/lua/5.1 — Lua module directory.
+ /usr/local/share/lua/5.1/jit/*.lua —
+jit.* modules.
+
+The Lua docs and includes are not installed to avoid overwriting +an existing Lua installation. In any case these are identical +to the version of Lua that LuaJIT is based on. If you want +to install them, edit the top-level makefile (look for ###). +
++The stand-alone Lua bytecode compiler luac is neither +built nor installed, for the same reason. If you really need it, +you may be better off with luac built from the original Lua +distribution (use the same version your copy of LuaJIT +is based on). This avoids dragging in most of LuaJIT which is not +needed for the pure bytecode compiler. You can also use the bare-bones +Lua to bytecode translator luac.lua (look in the test +directory of the original Lua distribution). +
+ +Windows
++Copy luajit.exe and lua51.dll +to a newly created directory (any location is ok). Add lua +and lua\jit directories below it and copy all Lua files +from the jit directory of the distribution to the latter directory. +
++There are no hardcoded +absolute path names — all modules are loaded relative to the +directory where luajit.exe is installed +(see src/luaconf.h). +
+ +Embedding LuaJIT
++It's strongly recommended that you build the stand-alone executable +with your toolchain and verify that it works before starting +to embed LuaJIT into an application. The stand-alone executable is +also useful later on, when you want to experiment with code snippets +or try out some Lua files. +
++Please consult the Lua docs for general information about how to +embed Lua into your application. The following list only shows +the additional steps needed for embedding LuaJIT: +
+-
+
- You need to add the LuaJIT library functions by running +luaopen_jit() after all the other standard library functions. +The modified src/linit.c used by the stand-alone executable +already does this for you. +
- Caveat: LuaJIT is based on Lua 5.1 which +means the luaopen_*() functions must not +be called directly. See src/linit.c for the proper way to +run them. You'll get an error initializing the io library +if you don't follow these instructions. +
- To use the optimizer (strongly recommended) you need to:
+
-
+
- Install the optimizer modules jit.opt and
+jit.opt_inline relative to the Lua module path
+(you've probably modified it — see src/luaconf.h):
+jit/opt.lua
+jit/opt_inline.lua
+ - If you want to ship a single executable then you may want to
+embed the optimizer modules into your application (but don't loose
+time with this during the early development phase). This involves:
+
-
+
- Compile the two modules to bytecode +(using luac -s from a plain Lua installation). +
- Convert them to C include files (search for "Lua bin2c"). +
- On Windows you can also put the compiled bytecode into a resource +(search for "Lua bin2res"). +
- Load the bytecode with luaL_loadbuffer (but don't run it). +
- Put the resulting functions into package.preload["jit.opt"] +and package.preload["jit.opt_inline"]. +
+ - Activate the LuaJIT optimizer from Lua code to be run at startup:
+ require("jit.opt").start()
+Or use equivalent C code. See dojitopt() in src/lua.c.
+
+ - Install the optimizer modules jit.opt and
+jit.opt_inline relative to the Lua module path
+(you've probably modified it — see src/luaconf.h):
- All other LuaJIT specific modules (jit.*) are for debugging only. +They do not need to be shipped with an application. But they may be quite +useful, anyway (especially jit.trace). +
- DynASM is only needed while building LuaJIT. It's not +needed while running LuaJIT and there is no point in shipping or +installing it together with an application. +
- In case you want to strip some of the standard libraries from +your application: The optimizer modules need several functions from +the base library and the string library (and of course the LuaJIT +core libraries). The io library is only used to print a fatal error +message (you may want to replace it). The optional modules +for debugging depend on a few more library functions — +please check the source. +
+Although the very liberal LuaJIT
+» license
+does not require any acknowledgment whatsoever, it would be appreciated
+if you give some credit in the docs (or the "About" box) of your application.
+A simple line like:
+ This product includes LuaJIT, http://luajit.org/
+would be nice. Please do not include any E-Mail addresses. Thank you!
+
+I'm always interested where LuaJIT can be put to good use in applications. +Please tell me +or better yet write a few lines about your project to the +» Lua mailing list. +Thank you! +
++