Lua: Install a rock using luarocks from a locally installed rock (or from a .zip/.tar.gz)

Question

I hunted around but I couldn't determine if this is possible.

Basically, http://luarocks.org is down, and I already have a copy of luafilesystem installed on another machine locally here. With Ruby, it's possible to cross install ruby gems using the 'gem' command locally. I'm wondering if the same is possible with rocks and luarocks.

Is there any way to 'cross-install' a rock (for instance, luafilesystem), by using another local installation of that rock?

Something like:

luarocks install //10.0.1.123/machine/path/to/luafilesystem/on/other/machine

is what I'd like to be able to do.

UPDATE: I'd even be happy with how to install a rock from the .tar.gz or .zip, for instance, if I downloaded one of the images from this location (in the case of LuaFileSystem).

In which case, the 'source' for the install would / could be local to the machine, rather than remote (and wouldn't necessarily already be installed as a rock).

Answer 1

LuaRocks has a pack subcommand that will create a binary rock (a zip file containing all files for an installed module). You can use that binary rock to install the same module on another computer, given that the architecture matches.

E.g.

luarocks pack luafilesystem

produces luafilesystem-1.6.2-2.linux-x86_64.rock on my machine, and

luarocks install luafilesystem-1.6.2-2.linux-x86_64.rock

will reinstall luafilesystem with no internet connection necessary.

Answer 2

If you have the source zip, you can unpack it and point luarocks to the the rockspec file. Here is how I installed 'busted' from source.

git clone https://github.com/Olivine-Labs/busted.git
luarocks install busted/busted-1.3-1.rockspec

Or install it directly from source

cd busted
luarocks make

Answer 3

If Someone want an installation from the local source rock.

Just do this:

cd /path/to/source-rock
luarocks make source-rock.rockspec

NOTE:

Use make instead of install. The reason is here (quoted below).

LuaRocks offers this:

make Compile package in current directory using a rockspec.

install Install a rock.

However, install does not utilize the present make. It tries to download and recompile the same package from the server instead of the one I customized locally.

Any way round this?

The make command will actually build and install your customized rockspec. The poor naming choice causes confusion every now and then, I know.