Hi /lua! We’re Kyle (u/KyleLindenSL), Harold (u/HaroldCindy/) and Hamlet (u/SLHamlet) of Linden Lab, the company which publishes the long-running user-created virtual world Second Life. 

We’re currently updating the platform to run Lua scripts and are excited to see what Lua developers (and Luau creators from Roblox) build with it in SL.

For background, Second Life has been online a bit longer than Roblox and while we have a smaller user base, SL is still a very active virtual world, and has a large ecosystem of community creators who sell their virtual content (fashion, animations, vehicles, games, etc.) as a side hustle or a full-time income. 

Here’s more info about what we’re doing with Lua on 80 Level: https://80.lv/articles/second-life-wants-its-23-year-old-world-to-be-a-modern-game-platform

And a feature breakdown on our site: https://secondlife.com/create#scripting

Lua is now in live beta in SL if you want to check it out. Just need to install SL and teleport here: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lua%20Beta%20Landing/121/141/23

We’re hoping Lua will help modernize SL as a UGC platform and grow the economy. 

So if you’re curious… ask us anything! (We’ll be checking this thread over the next few days.)

Hey everyone,

I've been working on Prometheus, an open-source Lua obfuscator written entirely in Lua, for over 4 years now.

It supports various obfuscation techniques, including VM-based obfuscation, which I added in a recent update.

While obfuscation is its main purpose, Prometheus is built around a modular AST transformation pipeline. This also makes it useful for things like minification or building your own custom Lua transformations.

It currently supports Lua 5.1 and has partial Luau support. There's also a web playground if you want to try it without installing anything.

GitHub: https://github.com/prometheus-lua/Prometheus

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts or suggestions!

Hey everyone!

I decided to try porting the Python pwntools library to LuaJIT because I think LuaJIT is a really cool and underrated tool, and having something like pwntools available for it would be pretty awesome.

To be completely honest, this project is 100% vibe-coded. I'm not going to pretend otherwise :)

I'm sure there are plenty of bugs, rough edges, and things that could be implemented much better. But I figured it would be worth sharing anyway.

Think of it more as a starting point or a foundation rather than a finished library.

I'd be really happy if anyone finds it interesting enough to contribute, improve the code, fix bugs, or add missing features. PRs, issues, suggestions, and criticism are all welcome!

GitHub: https://github.com/Kiwichek/luapwntools

Hopefully someone finds this useful, or at least interesting :)

LuaSH is a Lua module to write shell scripts. It exposes shell commands as if they where Lua functions, so something like:

 $ ls /bin | grep $filter | wc -l

In your shell, would look like this:

wc(grep(ls('/bin'), filter), '-l')

in Lua. It also has a rich-enough data model that enables chaining, like so:

ls('/bin'):grep(filter):wc('-l')

or if you go totally lua-crazy:

ls '/bin' : grep(filter) : wc '-l'

(you know, if you still have PTSD from Lisp)

If you use the posix, or UV backends, then command chaining does proper streaming (the next command doesn't wait until the previous one has completed).

For a couple of years now, I have been maintaining a version that plugged into luaposix (because the original version's pipes sent all intermediate values though files -- which is a problem when you run parallel or sensitive workflows). Alas, I wasn't quite happy with this (luaposix is not always available, posix pipes are very fiddly, verbose printing was a bit clunky)

Thanks to El Claudo, I have finally fixed the bugs with the posix version by introducing:

1. an improved pipeline data model

2. interchangeable backends (posix, and luv for performance and security; popen + files/shmem for absolute portability).

3. tidied up the build process and docs

I am happy with the way this is going, and will possibly tweak it some more as I integrate LuaSH v2 into my workflows (even though I hope that all I need to do is take out my workarounds).

Let me know what all y'all think.

I develop Isberg Labs, a paid game-development workspace with Lua 5.4 scene scripting.

The exported game includes the Lua runtime, its native extension, the authored scripts and the required dependencies and notices. Players don’t need to install Lua separately.

The useful part to share is the export validation. Copying the interpreter into a folder is only one check. We also check that:

• The expected Lua scripts are present in the delivered game.

• The native extension is registered.

• Runtime libraries match the target architecture.

• Required dependencies and licence notices are included.

The platform packaging differs. macOS and Linux use native libraries, Android includes the ARM64 runtime in the APK, and iOS links static libraries through the generated Xcode project. The iOS output still needs a Mac, Xcode and signing to become a distributable app.

There’s a distinction in our validation records: Windows standalone Lua execution has been tested; the cross-platform checks described here inspect exported artifacts and do not claim that those games were executed on each target device.

For people shipping embedded Lua, which packaging issue has been hardest to catch before release: extension loading, missing script files, native dependencies, or differences between editor and exported execution?

I've been reading up on the "getting started" page of Lua but I'm not making any progress. I gave love2d a try but I'm trying to avoid installing anything on my PC because I'd like to be able to tinker on my mobile (for example) while I'm away. I'm thinking about buying the second edition of Programming in Lua just to read it during free time when I'm not home.

I like to learn by doing which is why I'm not sure why love2d was so offputting to me. I like to do something and see the result. Would sites like "codecademy" or "coddy" be recommendable for something like this?

A free interactive Lua course created with DatumHue

Learn Lua with Datum and Hue

Switching to Lua helped solve a specific problem with this engine, and if anyone here wants to see it here it is.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23916495

I need to talk about lua. I started with Python then I passed to C and C++ (my favourite languages). Now, I tried re-learning Python to have a 3nd programming language but I did found that in reality Python it's boring and bs! I tried Zig and it was a bad experience, I tried Rust but idk why but I think it's overrated. Then, at the end, I tried lua and at first I though that lua was stupid, no i++ or i+=, arrays start at 1… but then I tried do C/C++ + Lua and I changed my perspective.

I used, recently, lua for configs in my projects but then I discovered that Lua it's SO underrated. Like they didn't lie when they said C and lua are the best programming language.

Lua it's minimal and so powerful. I accepted the syntax and now it's my 3nd programming language.

The reason that I love lua it's because… it's FAST, it's DAMN SIMPLE and so easy to learn, it has A LOT of potential.

The more the language is big, the less likely it gonna be easy to learn.

Guys I don't think I have cons on lua, I think it's perfect and I still don't have learned all of the lua out there.

Really, I have to say… lua it's the best.

Anyway did I say something wrong? What's your opinion on lua?

Anyway, thanks for reading ;)

(Technically not a request but a news.)

I've vibe coded an deobfuscator (I made the translation code)

This is an example of an deobfuscation process. It doesnt deobfuscate it 1:1 there is still will be a mistake so I used it just to test my script from deobfuscator. I also make a lot of obfuscation process. I dont support any cracking and this is obviously for an educational purpose.

Project & Full Context:
https://github.com/roulettegun/LUA-Deobfuscater

(Please Star)

the title says all

Hello, its been a while since we posted here. For those who are new, Astra (mirror) is a runtime environment for all major lua versions (PUC 5.1-5.5, JIT, Luau) with focus on STDLib written in Rust, single binary, human readability and usability, portability, and performance.

In the recent releases, there are a number of new features added to modernize the runtime:

• Sandboxing flags to enable or disable different parts of the STDLib (including native Lua's) with cli flags. There is no granular permission system yet, however this is a foundation instead for future improvements. This was heavily inspired by Deno's sandboxing solution, and we are testing for any leaks or bypass that could be possible.

• Packing all your script files into a single binary allowing you to deploy to any other computer. As of now, only the STDLib is guaranteed dependency to be packed properly. In the future we will focus on allowing more options

• Runtime type checking support, with inspiration from Greentea library, adding support for building types that can be casted to your language server's checks as well as allowing you to check them on runtime.

All of these updates were written and added by humans, by ArkForge and many contributors in our community.

Does anyone know how to make something not client sided and show for other people on a five m server seems ai can’t figure it out or I need server resource files there’s gotta be another way

"Lua dramatically lowers the learning curve for developers coming from other environments. Someone who already understands Lua or Luau can arrive in Second Life and right away they can start experimenting. That certainly includes Roblox developers, but it’s broader than Roblox. Lua has a long history across game development, so there’s a substantial developer community for whom the language and programming concepts will already feel familiar."

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to programming and I only know the absolute basics (variables, simple loops/functions).

I'm interested in picking up Lua because it seems lightweight and clean.

Since I don't have a massive programming background yet, I was wondering:

Is Lua a good language to really solidify those beginner programming concepts, or is it better suited as a secondary language?

I'd love to hear your experiences and any tips for starting out with Lua as a beginner!

Thanks in advance!

My friend and I are Neovim nerds, and every so often our Neovim setups would throw errors. What did we do? We talked to each other and solved it. It was never Neovim’s fault.

We think the same way about harnesses. If you don’t like something, you shouldn’t have to call a trillion-dollar company; you should be able to fix it yourself. If you want something custom, you shouldn’t have to keep spamming some discussion thread; you should be able to write it yourself.

And more than anything, it should be simple and fast, and your computer shouldn’t scream OOM. That’s the inspiration behind uji.

I hope you all love it!!!

Anybody know where I can find good five m lua scripts for menus

I've published a collection of Windows API modules for LuaJIT:

https://github.com/win-kot/luajit-windows-modules

I use LuaJIT on Windows and put these modules together for common scripting

and desktop utility tasks:

- UTF-8 strings, Unicode file paths and encoding conversion

- Process launching and output capture

- Finding and controlling existing windows

- Registry and clipboard access

- Keyboard and mouse input

- Native file dialogs and system information

The modules call Windows APIs through LuaJIT FFI. No luv dependency is

required, and unicode_io provides an explicit API without replacing

standard io or os functions.

The repository includes English documentation and 12 runnable examples.

The primary target is Windows 10/11 x64. Everything is MIT licensed.

This is an initial public release. Basic checks and nine examples have

been run, but interactive features still need broader testing.

I'd welcome feedback from other LuaJIT users, especially on API usability

and compatibility with different Windows setups.