Requirements

Both lde bundle and lde compile produce output tied to the LDE runtime, which is built on LuaJIT. The output is not intended to be used with standard Lua or other runtimes.

Bundling

lde bundle works out of the box with no extra dependencies. The resulting .lua file runs under the LDE runtime (lde run) or any LuaJIT build.

The --bytecode flag compiles modules to LuaJIT bytecode. The output is only compatible with the same LuaJIT version LDE uses. It will not run on Lua 5.x or a different LuaJIT build.

Compiling

lde compile requires a C compiler. lde prefers clang — it is what makes cross-compilation possible — and falls back to gcc for native builds when no clang is available:

• Windows: lde automatically downloads and sets up a clang-based toolchain on first use. No manual setup is needed. See Windows C Compilation for details.
• Linux: install clang via your package manager (e.g., apt install clang, dnf install clang). gcc also works for native builds.
• macOS: clang ships with Xcode Command Line Tools. Run xcode-select --install if not already installed.

To use a specific compiler (for example a custom cross toolchain), set the SEA_CC environment variable:

SEA_CC=clang lde compile

SEA_CC is only needed for fringe setups — normal compiles, including cross-compiles, resolve clang automatically.

The resulting binary is fully self-contained and requires no Lua or LDE installation to run.