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This page goes over getting set up in the various environments that the Lua language server can be used in.

You'll probably also want to get familiar with LuaCATS annotations.

Install

The Lua Language Server can be easily installed for many major clients.

Visual Studio Code

The language server can be installed super easily for Visual Studio Code by installing the sumneko.lua extension.

Install

The Visual Studio Code extension can be installed from the marketplace or found in VS Code under sumneko.lua.

Configuration

Configuration of the extension can be done from your VS Code settings (Ctrl + ,). Enter @ext:sumneko.lua in the search bar at the top and you will be presented with all of the settings for the extension.

NeoVim

View the install instructions for NeoVim in the nvim-lspconfig repo.

For getting set up from scratch using Mason, read Heiker's blog post.

For configuring, see the configuration file page.

Command Line

The Lua language server can be run straight from the command line.

You may be able to get it from your package manager:

• Windows
  • Scoop: scoop install lua-language-server
• MacOS
  • Homebrew: brew install lua-language-server
  • Macports: sudo port install lua-language-server

You can also find precompiled binaries attached to each release and prerelease from the GitHub actions for Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

Note that you can't simply create a symbolic link to the binary in one of the directories on your $PATH, since lua-language-server expects to find the scripts in a fixed location relative to the directory it is run from. Instead, create a wrapper script:

#!/bin/bash
exec "<path-to-directory>/bin/lua-language-server" "$@"

You can also build the language server yourself.

Community Install Methods

The methods below are maintained by community members.

asdf plugin

Configuration

Configuring the language server can be done in a number of ways. For more info, see the configuration file page.

Build

If you don't have a precompiled binary, you can build the server yourself.

1. Install Ninja
2. Ensure you have C++17
3. Clone the project

git clone https://github.com/LuaLS/lua-language-server
cd lua-language-server

Windows

.\make.bat

Linux/MacOS

./make.sh

Run

Windows

.\bin\lua-language-server.exe

Linux/MacOS

./bin/lua-language-server

Arguments

There are a few arguments that can be provided when running the language server from the command line.

entry

optional

Type: string

The main Lua script file from the root of this repository. If omitted, the application will attempt to load bin/../main.lua.

Flags

There are a few optional flags that can alter how the server operates.

--doc

Type: string

Where to create documentation JSON and MarkDown files.

Example: --doc=C:/Users/Me/Documents/LuaDocuments

--logpath

Type: string

Where the log should be written to. Defaults to ./log

Example: --logpath=D:/luaServer/logs

--loglevel

Type: string

The minimum level of logging that should appear in the logfile. Can be used to log more detailed info for debugging and error reporting.

Options:

• trace

Example: --loglevel=trace

--metapath

Type: string

Where the standard Lua library definition files should be generated to. Defaults to ./meta

Example: --metapath=D:/sumnekoLua/metaDefintions

--locale

Type: string

The language to use. Defaults to en-us. Options can be found in locale/

Example: --locale=zh-cn

--configpath

Type: string

The location of the configuration file that will be loaded. Can be relative to the workspace. When provided, config files from elsewhere (such as from VS Code) will no longer be loaded.

Example: --configpath=sumnekoLuaConfig.lua

--version

Type: boolean

Get the version of the Lua language server. This will print it to the command line and immediately exit.

--check

Type: boolean

Perform a "diagnosis report" where the results of the diagnosis are written to a file.

--checklevel

Type: string Default: Warning

To be used with --check. The minimum level of diagnostic that should be logged. Items with lower priority than the one listed here will not be written to the file. Options include, in order of priority:

1. Error
2. Warning
3. Information

Example: --checklevel=Information

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Common Issues

A list of common issues when executing/building from the command line.

• Compile error /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lstdc++ (or similar) when running install.sh
  • You may need to install libstdc++. On Fedora linux or similar run:

    dnf install libstdc++-static