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How to compile Lua 5.3.0 as an iOS static library

This is a tutorial on how to compile Lua 5.3.0 as an iOS static library (liblua.a) on Mac OS X 10.10.2 Yosemite with Xcode 6.1.1.

1. Download and extract Lua 5.3.0 to a folder of your choice.

2. Start Xcode and Create a new Xcode project -> iOS -> Framework & Library -> Cocoa Touch Static Library, then choose lua as the Product Name and create the project

3. Now on the left pane delete the lua.h and the lua.m file (Move to Trash), then right click on the now empty lua folder and choose Add Files to “lua” and select the src\ folder of the extracted lua source.

4. Open the newly added src folder in the left pane and delete lua.c, luac.c and makefile (Remove Reference) as these would build the standalone interpreter and compiler (which we won’t need).

5. Change the output folder with File -> Project Settings and click the Advanced… button under Derived Data Location then choose Custom and set it to Relative to Workspace

6. Click on the lua project file (subtitled with “2 targets”) on the top left, expand the content pane by clicking on the expand icon and with a right click delete the target luaTests. Delete the folder luaTests (Move to Trash) on the left, too.

7. Set Release build with Product -> Build For -> Running

8. You may need to set a Code Signing Identy (under Code signing) and adjust the iOS Deployment target (under Deployment) to your needs.

9. Hit the compile button, you should now have a liblua.a in the Build/Products/ folder.

 

How to put the ios and iossim static library files into one library

After building both static libraries you may want to put the ios and iossim libraries into one library – containing both armv7 and ios vm x86/64 code:

 

Tags: ios, iphone, Lua, static library, Xcode

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