Best way for Lua script to call a C shared lib?

Question

I come from more of a Python and CTYPES background...and am trying to work out the best way to call a standard C shared lib from Lua script.

I have heard of \"Alien\

Answer 1

Lua cannot call C libraries out of the box. It does not ship with libffi, and as such doesn't work like ctypes.

Historically, lua is embedded into an application which in turn will add to the lua tables the needed functions and provide the lua stack manipulation to pass and return parameters.

Alien is a libffi adaptation and will work.