How do you load a custom module into Lua? - c++

Question

This has been driving me nuts for a long time now. I have followed every tutorial I could find on the internet (here are couple examples[ [1], [2] of the maybe half dozen good ones found via Google search), and still no clear explanation. Although it seems it must be something fairly simple as that lack of a documented explanation implies that it's something most people would take for granted.
How do I load a custom module into Lua?
On the advice of questions like this one, I have written a module that builds a shared library with the expectation that I would be able to load it through a require call. However, when I do that I get undefined symbol errors, despite those exact symbols appearing in the list from the command nm -g mylib.so.
Those two tutorials I linked before aim to create executables that look wrappers of the *.lua file. That is, the built *.exe file should be called to run the Lua program with the custom module.
I understand that these types questions are asked here fairly frequently (as noted in this answer), but I am still at a loss. I tried some of the binding packages (Luabind and OOLua), but those didn't work out great (e.g. my earlier question--which I did ultimately figure out, sort of).
I have implemented a class in C++
I have wrapped the constructors, destructors, and functions with thunks
I have built it errorless-ly as a shared library
Yet no matter what I get undefined symbol: ... errors when I try to load it as mod = require('mylib.so'). How do I do this?
Working Example of a Library of Functions
For the record, just registering a basic function works fine. The below code, when built as libluatest.so, can be run in Lua using the commands:
> require('libluatest')
> greet()
hello world!
libluatest.cpp
extern "C"
{
#include <lualib.h>
#include <lauxlib.h>
#include <lua.h>
}
#include <iostream>
static int greet(lua_State *L)
{
std::cout << "hello world!" << std::endl;
return 0;
}
static const luaL_reg funcs[] =
{
{ "greet", greet},
{ NULL, NULL }
};
extern "C" int luaopen_libluatest(lua_State* L)
{
luaL_register(L, "libluatest", funcs);
return 0;
}
Failing Example of a Class
This is what I am stuck on currently. It doesn't seem to want to work.
myObj.h
#include <string>
class MyObj
{
private:
std::string name_;
public:
MyObj();
~MyObj();
void rename(std::string name);
};
myObj.cpp
extern "C"
{
#include <lualib.h>
#include <lauxlib.h>
#include <lua.h>
}
#include <iostream>
#include "myObj.h"
void MyObj::rename(std::string name)
{
name_ = name;
std::cout << "New name: " << name_ << std::endl;
}
extern "C"
{
// Lua "constructor"
static int lmyobj_new(lua_State* L)
{
MyObj ** udata = (MyObj **)lua_newuserdata(L, sizeof(MyObj));
*udata = new MyObj();
luaL_getmetatable(L, "MyObj");
lua_setmetatable(L, -1);
return 1;
}
// Function to check the type of an argument
MyObj * lcheck_myobj(lua_State* L, int n)
{
return *(MyObj**)luaL_checkudata(L, n, "MyObj");
}
// Lua "destructor": Free instance for garbage collection
static int lmyobj_delete(lua_State* L)
{
MyObj * obj = lcheck_myobj(L, 1);
delete obj;
return 0;
}
static int lrename(lua_State* L)
{
MyObj * obj = lcheck_myobj(L, 1);
std::string new_name = luaL_checkstring(L, 2);
obj->rename(new_name);
return 0;
}
int luaopen_libmyObj(lua_State* L)
{
luaL_Reg funcs[] =
{
{ "new", lmyobj_new }, // Constructor
{ "__gc", lmyobj_delete }, // Destructor
{ "rename", lrename }, // Setter function
{ NULL, NULL } // Terminating flag
};
luaL_register(L, "MyObj", funcs);
return 0;
}
}
Compiled into libmyObj.so using a simple CMake build with C++11 standard flags on.
Error
> require('libmyObj')
error loading module 'libmyObj' from file './libmyObj.so':
./libmyObj.so: undefined symbol: _ZN5MyObjC1Ev stack traceback: [C]:
? [C]: in function 'require' stdin:1: in main chunk [C]: ?
I am dealing with Lua 5.1 on Ubuntu 14.04.
I am wondering if it has something to do with the mix of C and C++...

Answer 1

It seems that you do not implement:
MyObj() ; ~MyObj();
and be careful with luaopen_* function, since module name is myObj, function name should be luaopen_libmyObj.