Acquis 19 - Standalone Binaries

Lus can bundle scripts and their dependencies into the interpreter executable itself, creating standalone binaries that run without external files.

Basic Usage

Use --standalone to create a standalone executable from a script:

lus --standalone app.lus

This creates an executable named app (or app.exe on Windows) that runs the bundled script when executed.

./app

Including Files

Use --include to bundle additional files that can be require()d at runtime:

lus --standalone app.lus --include lib/utils.lus --include lib/config.lus

The bundled modules are available via their derived module names:

-- app.lus
local utils = require("utils")   -- loads bundled lib/utils.lus
local config = require("config") -- loads bundled lib/config.lus

Module Aliases

Use the :alias syntax to specify a custom module name:

lus --standalone app.lus --include vendor/json.lus:json

-- app.lus
local json = require("json")  -- loads bundled vendor/json.lus

Including Directories

Entire directories can be included, with files recursively bundled using dot-notation module names:

lus --standalone app.lus --include lib

-- app.lus
local http = require("lib.http")      -- loads lib/http.lus
local utils = require("lib.utils")    -- loads lib/utils.lus
local sub = require("lib.sub.module") -- loads lib/sub/module.lus

Only .lus and .lua files are included from directories.

Module Resolution

When require() is called, bundled modules are checked before the filesystem, which take precedence over same-named files in the working directory.

Preserved Arguments

CLI flags like -P and -W are automatically preserved in the bundle and applied at runtime:

lus --standalone app.lus -Pfs -Pnetwork
./app  # runs with fs and network permissions

Runtime Arguments

Arguments passed to the standalone binary are available via the arg table and ...:

./app foo bar baz

-- app.lus
print(arg[0])  -- "./app"
print(arg[1])  -- "foo"
print(arg[2])  -- "bar"
print(...)     -- "foo", "bar", "baz"