How to Compile LuaRocks for OpenResty and Install RapidJSON

LuaRocks is a popular Lua package manager that provides a command‑line interface for handling Lua dependencies, and it has more packages than the alternative LuaDist.

Compilation and Installation

wget https://github.com/luarocks/luarocks/archive/v3.0.0.tar.gz

tar zxvf v3.0.0.tar.gz

cd luarocks-3.0.0/

./configure --prefix=/usr/local/openresty/luajit \
    --with-lua=/usr/local/openresty/luajit/ \
    --lua-suffix=jit \
    --with-lua-include=/usr/local/openresty/luajit/include/luajit-2.1

make build
# Installation requires root privileges
sudo make install

Installation parameter description

--prefix

sets the LuaRocks installation directory. --with-lua points to the root directory of the installed Lua. --lua-suffix specifies the version suffix; for OpenResty’s LuaJIT this should be jit. --with-lua-include provides the directory containing Lua header files.

Check Version

luarocks --version
/usr/local/openresty/luajit/bin/luarocks 3.0.0
LuaRocks main command‑line interface

Typical error output

Configuring LuaRocks...

Lua version detected: 5.1
Lua interpreter found: /usr/local/openresty/luajit/bin/luajit
lua.h found: /usr/local/openresty/luajit/include/luajit-2.1/lua.h
Could not find 'unzip'.
Make sure it is installed and available in your PATH.

configure failed.

Solution

sudo apt install unzip

Installing Lua Packages

Run luarocks install package to install a Lua package, or use luarocks install package --tree=path to specify a custom installation directory.

Install rapidjson

RapidJSON is a well‑known open‑source C++ JSON library whose Java‑like API is easy to use; the author prefers a simpler wrapper that consolidates the many setXXX and getXXX functions into a single interface.

$ luarocks install rapidjson --tree=/usr/local/openresty/lualib/resty
Installing https://luarocks.org/rapidjson-0.5.1-1.src.rock
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 7.3.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 7.3.0
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc -- works
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- works
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- LUA_RAPIDJSON_VERSION: 0.5.1
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /tmp/luarocks_rapidjson-0.5.1-1-fd1Qr3/lua-rapidjson/build.luarocks
Scanning dependencies of target lua-rapidjson
[ 20%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/lua-rapidjson.dir/src/Document.cpp.o
[ 40%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/lua-rapidjson.dir/src/Schema.cpp.o
[ 60%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/lua-rapidjson.dir/src/rapidjson.cpp.o
[ 80%] Building CXX object CMakeFiles/lua-rapidjson.dir/src/values.cpp.o
[100%] Linking CXX shared module rapidjson.so
[100%] Built target lua-rapidjson
Install the project...
-- Install configuration: "Release"
-- Installing: /usr/local/openresty/lualib/resty/lib/luarocks/rocks-5.1/rapidjson/0.5.1-1/lib/rapidjson.so
rapidjson 0.5.1-1 is now installed in /usr/local/openresty/lualib/resty (license: MIT)

Installation Path

/usr/local/openresty/lualib/resty/lib/luarocks/rocks-5.1
ls
30log  luasocket  manifest  rapidjson

Usage

local rapidjson = require('rapidjson')

rapidjson.encode()
rapidjson.decode()

rapidjson.load()
rapidjson.dump()