| # Namespaces |
|
|
| The LuaRocks.org repository allows for each user to published their own |
| collection of rocks. Since LuaRocks 3, this concept of per-user rocks has been |
| integrated into the tool, in the form of **namespaces**. |
|
|
| What you can do with namespaces: |
|
|
| * Install packages using a namespace: |
| * `luarocks install my_user/my_rock` |
| * Depend on a specific namespaced version of a rock in your rockspec: |
| * `dependencies = { "my_user/my_rock > 2.0" }` |
|
|
| ## Background |
|
|
| LuaRocks has always supported multiple repositories, which can be set in the |
| [config file](config_file_format.md) with the `rocks_servers` entry. A |
| repository is an address (a local directory or a remote URL) where LuaRocks |
| can find a `manifest-5.x` file and .rock and .rockspec files. We also call |
| such repository a "manifest", for short. |
|
|
| The [LuaRocks.org](https://luarocks.org) website features a root manifest at |
| `https://luarocks.org` as well as per-user manifests at |
| `https://luarocks.org/manifests/<your-user-name>`. Entries in the root |
| manifest are operated in a first-come first-served manner, but even if someone |
| else has already taken a rock name, you can upload your own version of it to |
| your user manifest. You can refer to a per-user manifest the same way as any |
| other rocks server, adding to your configuration or using it with the`--server` flag. This means that you were always able to install your own |
| version of a rock using a command such as `luarocks install <my-rock> |
| --server=https://luarocks.org/manifests/<your-user-name>`. However, you could |
| not specifically depend on it from another rockspec, and once installed, the |
| information that this rock came from a specific manifest was lost. With |
| namespaces, now you can! |
|
|
| ## Using namespaces |
|
|
| All `luarocks` commands that accept a rock name as command line argument can |
| now take a namespaced variant: |
|
|
| ``` |
| luarocks install my_user/my_rock |
| ``` |
|
|
| LuaRocks will take your `rocks_trees` configuration and search for namespaced |
| manifests on each entry: for example, given the default server |
| `https://luarocks.org` it will look in |
| `https://luarocks.org/manifests/my_user`. |
|
|
| When installing, LuaRocks will internally store the information that this copy |
| of `my_rock` came from the `my_user` namespace, so it will be able to use that |
| information when another rockspec specifically asks for `my_user/my_rock` in |
| its dependencies. (The namespace information is stored in a separate |
| `rock_namespace` metadata file, at |
| `lib/luarocks/rocks-5.x/my_rock/1.0-1/rock_namespace`, relative to your local |
| rocks tree.) |
|
|
| ## Compatibility between non-namespaced and namespaced rocks |
|
|
| A namespaced package can stand for a non-namespaced one. If you have |
| `my_user/my_rock 1.0` installed and a rock depends on `my_rock 1.0`, the |
| installed rock will satisfy the dependency. |
|
|
| The opposite is not true: if you have `my_rock 1.0` installed but that did not |
| come from a `my_user` namespace, it will not satisfy a dependency for |
| `my_user/my_rock`. |
|
|
| ## Current limitations |
|
|
| You cannot have two rocks with the same name and version but different |
| namespaces installed at the same time in the same local rocks tree. |
|
|
