95 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
95 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
## callisto - standalone scripting platform for Lua 5.4
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Callisto extends Lua 5.4's standard library by adding new libraries and
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facilities to the language. It includes a file system library to manage
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and manipulate files, a process library to find active processes and
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manipulate signals, and a JSON manipulation library (lua-cjson) *among
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many more*.
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It is a standalone interpreter designed for people using Lua as a
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general scripting language, instead of using it embedded into another
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application (what Lua was designed for).
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Before I made Callisto, I had to rely on luaposix for basic file system
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manipulation and occasionally luasocket for HTTP plus lua-cjson for JSON
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parsing.
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luaposix provides most of the necessary functions, but is generally
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aimed towards people who already know how to use the POSIX APIs in C.
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First and foremost, Callisto tries to be:
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- an all-in-one zero-dependencies library for Lua that includes
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most features people would need, out of the box
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- a library that works and integrates well with Lua and its
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standard library, and is easy to use for those who have no
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experience with C
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Callisto relies on APIs specified in the POSIX specification;
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therefore it does not support operating systems that do not
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implement these APIs (like Microsoft Windows), only ones that
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do (like Linux, macOS, and the BSDs).
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## Dependencies
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To build Callisto, you'll need nothing but a C compiler and `ar`.
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The default C compiler is *cc* which is usually a symbolic link
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to your system's default C compiler. This should be gcc on Linux,
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and clang on most of the BSDs. If *cc* doesn't exist on your system,
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override it by adding `CC=compiler` to make's command like
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(replace `compiler` with the name or path to your C compiler)
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### Portability
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**Callisto has zero runtime dependencies**, unless you built it with
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support for GNU libreadline.* Lua 5.4 is statically linked in.
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This means that the same binary will likely work across different Linux
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distributions/versions. The only strictly required library is libc
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which is available on all systems.
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*libreadline support is automatically enabled by the configure script
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if the system supports it. Otherwise support for it is turned off.
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## Installation
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Callisto is distributed as source-only, but it's not hard to compile.
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First, get the source code using one of the tarballs found in
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the [Releases](https://github.com/jtbx/callisto/releases) page.
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Untar it then enter the directory with Callisto's source code.
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After that, run
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make
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to compile Callisto and all its dependencies.
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To install it, run `make install` as the root user in the source code directory
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to install Callisto and its shared library.
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### Arch Linux
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Users of Arch Linux can install the AUR package:
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https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/callisto-git
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### Nix
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If you use Nix, you can use the flake:
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nix profile install github:jtbx/callisto
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## Usage
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The standalone Callisto interpreter is called `csto`. Running it
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will start a REPL so you can execute chunks of code interactively.
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csto works just like the standalone Lua 5.4 interpreter. To execute
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a file, run `csto file` where *file* is the name of the file containing
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code that you want to run. Alternatively, you can put `#!/usr/bin/env csto`
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at the top of your script, run `chmod +x` on it, and then you can run the
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script as if it was a standalone executable, for example `./yourscript.lua`.
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## Documentation
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Docs can be found here:
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https://jtbx.github.io/callisto/doc
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