Linux: luarocks make on apt installed lua5.5

[cclauss]

• https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1142093

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• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lua5.5/+bug/2160598
• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lua5.5/+bug/2160601

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• https://salsa.debian.org/lua-team/lua-5-5/-/commit/a407d9fb1d11431b020fab83e861361c6b3ae446?file_path=debian%2Frules#note_780460
• https://salsa.debian.org/lua-team/luarocks/-/commit/9ab9c270214b12c39d18961a34dc51c6f509765d#note_780536

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• https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/apt-install-liblua5-5-dev-contains-a-typo-the-breaks-luarocks/85150
• https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/apt-install-luarocks-could-be-updated-to-support-lua5-5/85149

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apt-get install luarocks installs v3.8.0, which is too old for Lua 5.5.

Let's try to patch it to support: luarocks --lua-version=5.5 --local make

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Typo in the apt installed lua5.5.pc file

version=5.5.#define LUA_VERSION_RELEASE LUAI_TOSTR(LUA_VERSION_RELEASE_N)

I will try to report this to Ubuntu maintainers...

• https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/apt-install-liblua5-5-dev-contains-a-typo-the-breaks-luarocks/85148

% export PCDIR=$(pkgconf lua5.5 --variable pcfiledir)
% diff $PCDIR/lua5.4.pc $PCDIR/lua5.5.pc

Can you spot the typo below?

< major_version=5.4
< version=5.4.8
< lib_name_include=lua5.4
> major_version=5.5
> version=5.5.#define LUA_VERSION_RELEASE	LUAI_TOSTR(LUA_VERSION_RELEASE_N)
> lib_name_include=lua5.5

Fix the typo

sudo sed -i '/^version=5\.5\.\#define /c\version=5.5.0' $PCDIR/lua5.5.pc

Effects on luarocks

This causes luarocks --lua-version=5.5 config to not create a LUA_INCDIR variable even if the typo has been fixed before apt-get install luarocks!

luarocks --lua-version=5.4 config | grep INC  # --> "/usr/include/lua5.4"
luarocks --lua-version=5.5 config | grep INC  # --> Nothing!!!
# Let's manually set LUA_INCDIR...
mkdir -p $HOME/.luarocks  # required before setting luarocks config variables.
luarocks --lua-version=5.5 config variables.LUA_INCDIR /usr/include/lua5.5
luarocks --lua-version=5.5 config | grep INC  # --> "/usr/include/lua5.5"

Steps to reproduce

% docker run -it ubuntu:26.04

apt-get update -q -q --yes
apt-get install --yes -q -q lua5.4 liblua5.4-dev lua5.5 liblua5.5-dev luarocks
luarocks --version  # /usr/bin/luarocks 3.8.0  # Not current >= 3.13.0
export PCDIR=$(pkgconf lua5.5 --variable pcfiledir)
diff $PCDIR/lua5.4.pc $PCDIR/lua5.5.pc | grep -E '^[<>] [^#]'
sed -i '/^version=5\.5\.\#define /c\version=5.5.0' $PCDIR/lua5.5.pc
diff $PCDIR/lua5.4.pc $PCDIR/lua5.5.pc | grep -E '^[<>] [^#]'

% docker run -it debian:trixie # Does not yet have lua5.5
% docker run -it debian:forky # Does ;-)
https://salsa.debian.org/lua-team/lua-5-5/-/commit/a407d9fb1d11431b020fab83e861361c6b3ae446#note_780460