Binary modules allow you to extend Lua's functionality using C++.

This page will teach you how to set up your IDE for compiling binary modules using Premake.

For help on interacting with the C Lua API once set up, refer to C Lua: Functions.

Dependencies

• Windows: Visual Studio 2015, Visual Studio 2017 or Visual Studio 2019 (Visual Studio 2022 has given me no issues)
• Linux: GCC (Included in sudo apt install build-essential if your distro supports apt)
• macOS: Xcode (Use the GCC compiler) (Untested)
• A copy of the garrysmod_common repository
• Premake5 binaries
• Git

Project Setup

• Create a new folder, name it anything you like. This will be your project's main folder. Put it somewhere you can get to it in the future.

• Navigate to the new project folder, and type git clone https://github.com/danielga/garrysmod_common.git. You should then see a garrysmod_common folder in the project.

• Navigate to garrysmod_common, then type git submodule update --init --recursive. After this is complete, navigate to the project folder again.

• Drop the Premake5 binaries into the project folder.

• Create a file named premake5.lua and paste the following in:

  • If you only intend to create server binaries, you can delete the section that says serverside = false.
  • Replace the name at CreateWorkspace({name = "example" with your project name i.e. name = "myprojectname"

• Create a folder named source and place an empty file module.cpp in it. Copy this file's contents into it..

Your project folder should look like this:

In your system's command prompt, navigate to the project folder and run the following:

• Windows: premake5.exe --os=windows --gmcommon=./garrysmod_common vs2022 (Replace vs2022 with your Visual Studio version i.e. vs2019)
• Linux: ./premake5 --os=linux --gmcommon=./garrysmod_common gmake2
• macOS: ./premake5 --os=macosx --gmcommon=./garrysmod_common xcode4

This will create a projects folder, which you should navigate to and start working in. If using Visual Studio, your solution file will be in here.

Naming & Location

The module files should be placed in the garrysmod/lua/bin/ folder.

The names differ between platform and Lua realm.