Perl.md

LuaJIT Perl Module

This module allows you to embed a Perl interpreter within LuaJIT using the FFI library. It provides a simple API to initialize a Perl interpreter and execute Perl code.

Installation

1. Ensure you have perl.lua and perl_ffi.so in the same directory.
2. Place this directory in your Lua package path, or ensure the files are in a location where require("perl") can find them.
3. The perl_ffi.so library is a shared library compiled from the Perl source code. It is configured to be relocatable, so it should work as long as it is in the same directory as perl.lua.

Usage

local perl = require("perl")

-- Create a new Perl interpreter instance
local p, err = perl.new()
if not p then
    error("Failed to create Perl interpreter: " .. err)
end

-- Run Perl code
-- The arguments simulate the command line arguments passed to the perl executable
local args = {"perl", "-e", "print 'Hello from Perl!\\n'"}
local result, err = p:run(args)

if result ~= 0 then
    error("Perl execution failed: " .. (err or "unknown error"))
end

API

perl.new()

Creates a new Perl interpreter instance.

• Returns:
  • p: A table representing the Perl interpreter instance, or nil on failure.
  • err: An error message string if creation failed.

p:run(args)

Parses and executes Perl code using the interpreter instance.

• Parameters:
  • args: A table of strings representing the command-line arguments to pass to the Perl interpreter. The first argument should typically be "perl".
• Returns:
  • result: The exit code of the Perl execution (0 usually indicates success).
  • err: An error message string if the perl_parse step failed.

Building from Source

To build the perl_ffi.so library, you need the Perl source code.

1. Clone the Perl repository.
2. Configure the build with -Duseshrplib to generate a shared library.
3. Compile the source.
4. Rename the generated libperl.dylib (on macOS) to perl_ffi.so.
5. Use install_name_tool to set the install name to @loader_path/perl_ffi.so for portability.