Compiling and running SWIG for Lua in Ubuntu 16.04 for the truly lazy

Previously, we were able to compile and run SWIG for Lua in Ubuntu 16.04 using a C source file. In this blog entry, we want to do something very similar except that we use a C header file.

We begin with the files needed starting with the header file, example.h:

Then, we create the C implementation file, example.c:

Finally, we create the interface file, example.i, which is needed by SWIG:

Notice how much simpler this interface file is compared to the previous one. This is why this entry has a subclause "for the truly lazy".

We then call SWIG to create the wrapper file, example_wrap.c:

% swig -lua example.i

Then we compile the generated wrapper file:

% gcc -fPIC -I/usr/include/lua5.2 -c example_wrap.c -o example_wrap.o

We also compile the C source file, example.c:

% gcc -fPIC -I. -c example.c -o example.o

Finally, we create the shared object which is to be used by our Lua script:

% gcc -shared -I/usr/include/lua5.2 example_wrap.o example.o -o example.so

The Lua script is just the same as our previous blog entry. For convenience:

When run:

% lua test.lua
3
120
2
Wed Jun 14 14:56:54 2017

Hope this helps the world. :)