Datasheet

2. Add this directory to the Windows search path. On older versions of Windows, use the

autoexec.bat file in the root directory of the boot drive. (More recent versions of Windows

still support this, but they also provide a graphical environment editor that you by opening the

System applet from the Control Panel.)

If the text field containing the path variable is too small to see the entire value, cut and paste the

value to your text editor, make the appropriate change, and then cut and paste the modified

value back to the path edit field.

3. The new search path applies only to shells that are opened after the change, so exit and restart

your shell.

Recommended Settings for Windows

For this book, the following environment variables are recommended on Windows systems:

UTIL_DIR=c:\program files\utility

LUA_DIR=c:\program files\lua\5.1

LUA_CPATH=?.dll;%LUA_DIR%\?.dll

LUA_PATH=?.lua;%LUA_DIR%\?.lua

The UTIL_DIR variable identifies the utility directory you created in the preceding section. Additionally,

if you have a software development kit and intend to compile Lua and possibly libraries for Lua, set the

following environment variables:

SDK_DIR=c:\program files\msc

INCLUDE=%SDK_DIR%\include;%SDK_DIR%\include\usr

LIB=%SDK_DIR%\lib;%SDK_DIR%\lib\usr

The SDK_DIR depends on where you installed your SDK.

Restart your shell for environment changes to take effect. Then use Windows Explorer or the command

shell to create the various directories that these environment variables identify.

Dealing with Tarballs and Zip Files

Whether you install Lua using precompiled packages or compile it from a source code package, you will

be dealing with a packaging form colloquially known as a tarball. Files of this type have the extension

.tar.gz or .tgz. A tarball bundles a group of files that can be distributed over one or more directories.

The contents, owners, permissions, and timestamps of the bundled files are preserved using the

tar util-

ity, whose name derives from its original purpose of transferring files to and from a tape archive. The

amalgamated file is then compressed using the

gzip utility or, for tarballs with the .tar.bz2 extension,

using the slower and more aggressive

bzip2 compression utility. Although tarballs are part of the Unix

tradition, tools for managing them on Windows are freely available. In particular, one versatile open-

source utility for Windows that handles any type of package you are likely to encounter is

7z. Both

graphical and shell-oriented versions are available from

www.7-zip.org. Whichever version you use,

make sure the directory in which you install 7-zip is included in your system search path. Extracting the

Chapter 1: Getting Situated

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