This page provides instructions for installing JNLua and launching the JNLua console in order to get started with using JNLua.

Installing JNLua

JNLua can be downloaded from its project web site. The download directory contains three types of assemblies:

• bin: these contain the JNLua Java library as a JAR file
• native: these contain pre-built versions of the JNLua native library and the JNLua Java module for the Win32 platform (64-bit and 32-bit)
• src: these contain the JNLua source code

As an alternative, you clone JNLua from its repository. Tags are provided for each release.

Installing the JNLua Java Library

The JNLua Java library is provided by a file named jnlua-{version}.jar. This file can be obtained by downloading a bin assembly.

Apache Maven is required to build the JNLua Java library manually. Once the JNLua native library and the Lua library are installed on your system (see below), type the following commands:

mvn clean
mvn javadoc:jar
mvn package

Installing the JNLua Native Library

The JNLua proejct provides pre-built versions of the JNLua native library for the Win32 platform (64-bit and 32-bit). These files can be obtained by downloading a native assembly.

Please see Building the Native Library for information on how to build the JNLua native library on other platforms, or do a different build for Win32.

Installation Directory

The JNLua native library must be placed in a location where is is found by the Java Virtual machine. Typical locations include:

• Win32: C:\Windows\System32
• Linux: /usr/lib
• MacOSX: /Library/Java/Extensions

See your JVM documentation for a list of these locations on your platform. As as alternative, you can ensure that the location where you have installed the JNLua native library is on your java.library.path.

Installing the Lua Library

The JNLua native library requires Lua as a shared library. Depending on your environment, you can install the shared Lua library via a package manager, download it from the LuaBinaries project, or compile the Lua source code into a shared library yourself.

Lua Version

JNLua 0.9 requires Lua 5.1.

JNLua 1.0 requires Lua 5.2.

Installation Directory

The Lua library must be placed in a location where is is found when the Java Virtual Machine loads the JNLua native library. Typical locations inlcude:

• Win32: C:\Windows\System32
• Linux: /usr/lib
• MacOSX: /usr/lib

Launching the JNLua Console

To launch the JNLua console, type the following in the directory where jnlua-{version}.jar is installed:

java -classpath jnlua-{version}.jar com.naef.jnlua.console.LuaConsole 

To exit the console, terminate the input. On Windows, this is accomplished by typing F6 followed by Enter. On Linux, type Ctrl+D.