Installation

It is highly recommended to use OpenResty releases which integrate Nginx, ngx_lua, LuaJIT 2.1, as well as other powerful companion Nginx modules and Lua libraries. It is discouraged to build this module with nginx yourself since it is tricky to set up exactly right. Also, the stock nginx cores have various limitations and long standing bugs that can make some of this modules’ features become disabled, not work properly, or run slower. The same applies to LuaJIT as well. OpenResty includes its own version of LuaJIT which gets specifically optimized and enhanced for the OpenResty environment.

Alternatively, ngx_lua can be manually compiled into Nginx:

1. Install LuaJIT 2.0 or 2.1 (recommended) or Lua 5.1 (Lua 5.2 is not supported yet). LuaJIT can be downloaded from the LuaJIT project website and Lua 5.1, from the Lua project website. Some distribution package managers also distribute LuaJIT and/or Lua.
2. Download the latest version of the ngx_devel_kit (NDK) module HERE.
3. Download the latest version of ngx_lua HERE.
4. Download the latest version of Nginx HERE(See Nginx Compatibility)

Build the source with this module:

 wget 'http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.13.6.tar.gz'
 tar -xzvf nginx-1.13.6.tar.gz
 cd nginx-1.13.6/

 # tell nginx's build system where to find LuaJIT 2.0:
 export LUAJIT_LIB=/path/to/luajit/lib
 export LUAJIT_INC=/path/to/luajit/include/luajit-2.0

 # tell nginx's build system where to find LuaJIT 2.1:
 export LUAJIT_LIB=/path/to/luajit/lib
 export LUAJIT_INC=/path/to/luajit/include/luajit-2.1

 # or tell where to find Lua if using Lua instead:
 #export LUA_LIB=/path/to/lua/lib
 #export LUA_INC=/path/to/lua/include

 # Here we assume Nginx is to be installed under /opt/nginx/.
 ./configure --prefix=/opt/nginx \
         --with-ld-opt="-Wl,-rpath,/path/to/luajit-or-lua/lib" \
         --add-module=/path/to/ngx_devel_kit \
         --add-module=/path/to/lua-nginx-module

 # Note that you may also want to add `./configure` options which are used in your
 # current nginx build.
 # You can get usually those options using command nginx -V

 # you can change the parallism number 2 below to fit the number of spare CPU cores in your
 # machine.
 make -j2
 make install

Alternatively, ngx_lua can be manually compiled into Nginx:

Install LuaJIT 2.0 or 2.1 (recommended) or Lua 5.1 (Lua 5.2 is not supported yet). LuaJIT can be downloaded from the LuaJIT project website and Lua 5.1, from the Lua project website. Some distribution package managers also distribute LuaJIT and/or Lua.
Download the latest version of the ngx_devel_kit (NDK) module HERE.
Download the latest version of ngx_lua HERE.
Download the latest version of Nginx HERE (See Nginx Compatibility)
Build the source with this module:

wget ‘http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.13.6.tar.gz’
tar -xzvf nginx-1.13.6.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.13.6/

# tell nginx’s build system where to find LuaJIT 2.0:
export LUAJIT_LIB=/path/to/luajit/lib
export LUAJIT_INC=/path/to/luajit/include/luajit-2.0

# tell nginx’s build system where to find LuaJIT 2.1:
export LUAJIT_LIB=/path/to/luajit/lib
export LUAJIT_INC=/path/to/luajit/include/luajit-2.1

# or tell where to find Lua if using Lua instead:
#export LUA_LIB=/path/to/lua/lib
#export LUA_INC=/path/to/lua/include

# Here we assume Nginx is to be installed under /opt/nginx/.
./configure –prefix=/opt/nginx \
–with-ld-opt=”-Wl,-rpath,/path/to/luajit-or-lua/lib” \
–add-module=/path/to/ngx_devel_kit \
–add-module=/path/to/lua-nginx-module

# Note that you may also want to add ./configure options which are used in your
# current nginx build.
# You can get usually those options using command nginx -V

# you can change the parallism number 2 below to fit the number of spare CPU cores in your
# machine.
make -j2
make install