How to compile Lua 5.3.0 for Android as a dynamic library

Monday, January 26th, 2015 | Dennis D. Spreen | Android, Lua

This is a tutorial on how to compile Lua 5.3.0 for Android as a dynamic library (liblua.so) using the Windows Eclipse ADT.

This tutorial is based on the deprecated Eclipse ADT bundle which is now replaced by Android Studio. A tutorial using Android Studio will follow.

1. download and extract Eclipse ADT with the Android SDK for Windows (with a single download, the Eclipse ADT bundle includes everything you need) to C:\Android\adt-bundle-windows-x86-20140702\, then download and extract the current Android NDK for Windows to C:\Android\android-ndk-r10d\ – if not yet done (use your paths accordingly if installed in other directories).

2. run Eclipse ADT (C:\Android\adt-bundle-windows-x86-20140702\eclipse\eclipse.exe) and create a new project with File->New->Android Application Project, fill in some Application, project and package names, use the blank activity template (leave default workspace setting as C:\users\%yourusername%\workspace)

3. Left click on your project then select New -> Folder and choose jni as the folder name

eclipse1

4. Left click on this new folder and select New->File

eclipse2

name it Android.mk and paste this into

LOCAL_PATH := $(call my-dir)

include $(CLEAR_VARS)

LOCAL_ARM_MODE := arm

LOCAL_CFLAGS := -D"l_getlocaledecpoint()='.'" -DLUA_ANSI

LOCAL_MODULE := liblua

LOCAL_SRC_FILES := lua/src/lapi.c lua/src/lauxlib.c lua/src/lbaselib.c lua/src/lbitlib.c lua/src/lcode.c lua/src/lcorolib.c lua/src/lctype.c lua/src/ldblib.c lua/src/ldebug.c lua/src/ldo.c lua/src/ldump.c lua/src/lfunc.c lua/src/lgc.c lua/src/linit.c lua/src/liolib.c lua/src/llex.c lua/src/lmathlib.c lua/src/lmem.c lua/src/loadlib.c lua/src/lobject.c lua/src/lopcodes.c lua/src/loslib.c lua/src/lparser.c lua/src/lstate.c lua/src/lstring.c lua/src/lstrlib.c lua/src/ltable.c lua/src/ltablib.c lua/src/ltm.c lua/src/lundump.c lua/src/lutf8lib.c lua/src/lvm.c lua/src/lzio.c

include $(BUILD_SHARED_LIBRARY)

5. Repeat step 4. and create a file in the same jni folder called Application.mk and fill it with

APP_ABI := armeabi armeabi-v7a x86

By default, the NDK build system will generate machine code only for the armeabi ABI. This corresponds to an ARMv5TE based CPU with software floating point operations. You can use APP_ABI to select a different ABI – the above APP_ABI definition creates 3 libraries with support for a ARMv5TE CPU, a ARMv7 with hardware FPU instructions and x86 devices. Use all for building all ABIs.

6. Download Lua 5.3.0 source and extract it into the jni/ folder, then rename the lua-5.3.0 folder to lua

7. Back in Eclipse with a Refresh on the jni folder should update your directory and file structure like this

ecplise_lua_1

8. navigate with a terminal to your root project folder and type