pat2nav/luabridge

A lightweight, dependency-free library for binding Lua to C++

LuaBridge 2.8

LuaBridge is a lightweight and dependency-free library for mapping data, functions, and classes back and forth between C++ and Lua (a powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language). LuaBridge has been tested and works with Lua revisions starting from 5.1.5, although it should work in any version of Lua from 5.1.0 as well as LuaJit.

LuaBridge offers the following features:

• MIT Licensed
• A printable Reference Manual.
• Headers-only: No Makefile, no .cpp files, just one #include!
• Simple, light, and nothing else needed (like Boost).
• No macros, settings, or configuration scripts needed.
• Supports different object lifetime management models.
• Convenient, type-safe access to the Lua stack.
• Automatic function parameter type binding.
• Easy access to Lua objects like tables and functions.
• Written in a clear and easy to debug style.

Please read the LuaBridge Reference Manual for more details on the API.

Unit Tests

Unit test build requires a CMake and C++11 compliant compiler.

To enable C++17 features (std::optional and std::string_view) specify an extra option: -DLUABRIDGE_CXX17=1.

There are the following unit test flavors:

• Tests51 - uses Lua 5.1.5
• Tests51Cxx17 - uses Lua 5.1.5 and C++17 features
• Tests52 - uses Lua 5.2.4,
• Tests52Cxx17 - uses Lua 5.2.4 and C++17 features
• Tests53 - uses Lua 5.3.6
• Tests53Cxx17 - uses Lua 5.3.6 and C++17 features
• Tests54 - uses Lua 5.4.4
• Tests54Cxx17 - uses Lua 5.4.4 and C++17 features

Build using Make on Linux/MacOS:

clone --recurse-submodules [email protected]:vinniefalco/LuaBridge.git
cd LuaBridge
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -B build
# or cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -B build
# or cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -B build
cd build
make -j

Generate XCode project on MacOS:

clone --recurse-submodules [email protected]:vinniefalco/LuaBridge.git
cd LuaBridge
cmake -G Xcode -B build
# Generates XCode project build/LuaBridge.xcodeproj

Generate MSVS solution on Windows:

clone --recurse-submodules [e-mail]:vinniefalco/LuaBridge.git
cd LuaBridge
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022 Win64" -B build
# or cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" -B build
# or cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 2015" -B build
# or cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" -B build
# or cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017" -B build
# or cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2019" -A Win64 -B build
# or cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2019" -B build
# Generates MSVS solution build/LuaBridge.sln

Installing LuaBridge (vcpkg)

You can download and install LuaBridge using the vcpkg dependency manager:

git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg
./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh # The name of the script should be "./bootstrap-vcpkg.bat" for Powershell
./vcpkg integrate install
./vcpkg install luabridge

The LuaBridge port in vcpkg is kept up to date by Microsoft team members and community contributors. If the version is out of date, please create an issue or pull request on the vcpkg repository.

Official Repository

LuaBridge is published under the terms of the MIT License.

The original version of LuaBridge was written by Nathan Reed. The project has been taken over by Vinnie Falco, who added new functionality, wrote the new documentation, and incorporated contributions from Nigel Atkinson.

For questions, comments, or bug reports feel free to open a Github issue or contact Vinnie Falco directly at the email address indicated below.

Copyright 2019, Dmitry Tarakanov
Copyright 2012, Vinnie Falco (<[email protected]>)
Copyright 2008, Nigel Atkinson
Copyright 2007, Nathan Reed

Portions from The Loki Library:
Copyright (C) 2001 by Andrei Alexandrescu

Older versions of LuaBridge up to and including 0.2 are distributed under the BSD 3-Clause License. See the corresponding license file in those versions (distributed separately) for more details.