Installing Lua

Windows

Download the prebuilt binaries (lua-5.4.x_Win64_bin.zip) from the LuaBinaries project, unzip them to a folder such as C:\lua, and add it to your PATH. Or use a package manager:

winget install DEVCOM.Lua
scoop install lua

macOS

brew install lua

Linux

sudo apt install lua5.4        # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf install lua           # Fedora

Check it works

$ lua -v
Lua 5.4.8  Copyright (C) 1994-2025 Lua.org, PUC-Rio

On some systems the command is lua5.4 or lua54.

LuaRocks

LuaRocks is Lua's package manager — install it too if you plan to use third-party libraries (Level 3 covers it).

Try it without installing

The official site has a live demo at lua.org/demo.html, handy for trying the examples in this course.