Lua on Android

Note: This post is out of date. If you'd like to run Lua on your Android device, please see my Android Scripting Environment project.

After messing around for two days trying to get Python running on Android, I decided to give Lua a try. It didn't take much to get the interpreter running (especially compared to Python which still isn't running for me). Here's a very small patch for Lua 5.1.4.

diff -r lua-5.1.4/src/llex.c lua-5.1.4-android/src/llex.c
179c179
<   struct lconv *cv = localeconv();
---
>   //struct lconv *cv = localeconv();
181c181
<   ls->decpoint = (cv ? cv->decimal_point[0] : '.');
---
>   ls->decpoint = '.';//(cv ? cv->decimal_point[0] : '.');
461d460
<
diff -r lua-5.1.4/src/lvm.c lua-5.1.4-android/src/lvm.c
205c205
<     int temp = strcoll(l, r);
---
>     int temp = strcmp(l, r);//strcoll(l, r);
763d762
<

You'll also need get the Android source and build it. Then grab agcc (a small Perl script) linked to from some brief instructions about compiling native code for Android. Here are some even briefer instructions for getting Lua on your G1 :)

• Add agcc to your path.
• Add mydroid/prebuilt/linux-x86/toolchain/arm-eabi-4.2.1/bin to your path (the Android toolchain).
• Add mydroid/out/host/linux-x86/bin to your path (the Android development tools).
• Build and install Lua.

$ make CC=agcc AR="arm-eabi-ar rcu" RANLIB=arm-eabi-ranlib posix
...
$ make INSTALL_TOP=$(pwd)/lua-android install

• Copy Lua to your phone/emulator using adb.

$ cd lua-android
$ rm -rf man
$ adb shell
$ su
# cd data
# mkdir bin include lib share
# exit
$ exit
$ adb push . data

You can now either run Lua from adb shell or by installing the terminal emulator app and running it directly on your phone.


Update
I fixed some bugs in the instructions. :)