luau/rfcs/libraries.md

Libraries

Summary

We need a way to group together related code and provide easy ways to require them.

Motivation

• Package management
• Third party libraries
• Simpler requires

Design

String Syntax

Our require syntax should:

• Allow a library written in Luau to be imported into the Roblox engine and 'just work'.
• Support compile-time file resolution where possible for type checking.

Absolute

Modules can be required by their absolute path from the root of the filesystem.

Requiring a file called MyModule.luau in C:/MyLibrary:

local MyModule = require("C:/MyLibrary/MyModule")

Generally, absolute paths should not be used in regular code and should only appear in the alias map. Their purpose is to allow libraries to be stored in a global location (such as if a package is installed globally) without breaking if the libraries location is changed on disk.

Relative

Modules can be required relative to the requiring files location in the filesystem.

If we are trying to access a file called MyModule.luau in C:/MyLibrary:

-- From C:/MyLibrary/SubDirectory/SubModule.luau
local MyModule = require("../MyModule")
 
-- From C:/MyOtherLibrary/MainModule.luau
local MyModule = require("../MyLibrary/MyModule")

All relative paths will start with either ./ or ../ which denote the directory of the script or file, and parent directory respectively.

Aliases

Aliases can be used to bind an absolute or relative path to a convenient name that can be required directly. They are always prefixed with $ to make it obvious they are not the same as a regular path.

Each library has its own map which will be stored in a luauconfig.json file. Since libraries can be embedded inside of one another, any aliases which are not overriden will be inherited from the parent library.

"Aliases": {
    "Roact": "C:/LuauModules/Roact-v1.4.2"
}

Based on that map you would be able to require Roact directly:

local Roact = require("$Roact")

Or even a sub-module:

local createElement = require("$Roact/createElement")

Versioning

Aliases are simple bindings and aren't concerned with versioning. The intention is for a package manager to leverage aliases by automatically adding and updating the alias map to reflect a packages dependencies.

Root Alias

All libraries have a special alias for referring to their root. This alias cannot be overriden and is simply defined as $.

Requiring any file in the library can be done relative to the root:

local ModuleAtLibraryRoot = require("$/ModuleAtLibraryRoot")

Limitations

• Aliases cannot reference other aliases
• Aliases cannot contain certain characters such as / or $ (full list TBD)
• All aliases must be prefixed with $ when used in a require statement to avoid ambiguity
• Aliases can only occur at the beginning of a path
• Multiple aliases are not supported

Directories

If the string resolves to a directory rather than a file then we will attempt to require a specific file in that directory with the following name:

1. init.lua
2. init.luau

DataModel as VFS

In the Roblox engine, the DataModel will act as a virtual file system. At the root of this VFS is the DataModel itself. This will allow packages from Luau to be imported and exported freely without needing to consider the platform they are being used on.

All paths used in the Roblox engine must refer to a location in the DataModel, they cannot be used to access files on disk.

Platforms

For compatability across platforms, we will automatically map / onto \ on Windows.

Backwards Compatibility

Luau libraries are not compatible with existing Lua libraries. This is because Lua favors the . based require syntax instead.

• Libraries are fully compatible with the Roblox engine as string-syntax is unsupported.
• Compatibility with existing Luau is TBD.

luauconfig.json

As part of this proposal we will introduce a new luauconfig.json file. Initially, this file will only include library configuration data but in the future could be expanded to contain more.

The proposed structure for this file is:

{
    "aliases": {
        "alias": "./path/of/alias"
    }
}

Where a field is missing from luauconfig.json it will be taken from the parent library (if one exists).

Defining a Library

Any directory containing a luauconfig.json file is considered a library.

Since we don't support .json files in the DataModel we will introduce a new Library instance which contains the alias map and other properties.

Drawbacks

TBD

Alternatives

TBD