Installing Lua socket library

lua, luasocket, sockets

Solution

When you load a module with `require` Lua uses the package paths to determine where to look for the module. Have a look at the Modules section of the Lua manual. Specifically, the section on `package.path` and `package.cpath`.

package.path: The path used by require to search for a Lua loader (.lua modules) package.cpath: The path used by require to search for a C loader (.so/.dll modules)

You can check what the current paths are:

print(package.path..'\n'..package.cpath)

If you install LuaSocket into a location within your current package paths Lua should be able to locate and load it.

Alternatively, you can modify the package paths before calling `require`. For example, if you create a folder for your project and extract the LuaSocket library to a sub-folder called `libs` within your project folder:

Project
|
> libs
     |
     > lua
         |
         > socket         
     > socket
     > mime

You can set the package paths relative to your project before you `require` the socket library (substitute `/?.dll` for `/?.so` on Linux):

package.path = package.path..';./libs/lua/?.lua'
package.cpath = package.cpath..';./libs/socket/?.dll;./libs/mime/?.dll'
local socket = require 'socket'

Problem

Either I'm overtired or blind. I want to learn networking with Lua and therefore I have to install the `socket` lib, so I can require it easily, but I don't know, which files I should "require". The example says: ``` local socket = require("socket") ``` but as I said, I don't know which files I should include, if I use `socket.lua` it doesn't work and I get: `No files found`. I got the lib from here: Lua socket download Or, is there another way to install the socket lib?

Original source