luarocks broken after split package update

HHpinky · 2026-03-28 04:00:16

This post was prepared with the assistance of AI for translation and formatting.

Problem Description

After the recent update that split the

luarocks

package into multiple packages (2026-03-24), the

luarocks

command is no longer functional when installed alone. It fails with:

/usr/bin/lua5.5: /usr/sbin/luarocks:7: module 'luarocks.core.cfg' not found

Additionally, post-installation hooks fail when installing other packages that trigger manifest generation.

Steps to Reproduce

In a clean Arch Linux environment (container or VM):

# 1. Install only luarocks
pacman -S luarocks

# 2. Try to use it
luarocks --help

Expected:

luarocks

command works
Actual: Module not found error

# 3. Install any Lua package that triggers the hook
pacman -S lua54-zlib

Expected: Hook completes successfully
Actual: Hook fails with same module not found error

Analysis

After investigating, I found that:

The
```
luarocks
```
package is now split:
- ```
luarocks
```
  (6 KB) – command-line tools and hooks
- ```
lua-luarocks
```
  – actual Lua 5.5 library files
- ```
lua54-luarocks
```
  ,
```
lua53-luarocks
```
  , etc. – for other Lua versions

The

luarocks

package does NOT automatically install

lua-luarocks

:

$ pacman -Qi luarocks | grep Depends
Depends On      : coreutils  curl  lua  unzip  zip

Without

lua-luarocks

, the necessary files are missing:

$# ls /usr/share/lua/5.5/luarocks/core/
ls: cannot access '/usr/share/lua/5.5/luarocks/core/': No such file or directory

The post-installation hooks require these files:

$ cat /usr/share/libalpm/hooks/luarocks-make-manifest-5.5.hook
[Trigger]
Type = Path
Operation = Install
Operation = Upgrade
Operation = Remove
Target = usr/lib/luarocks/rocks-5.5/*/**

[Action]
Description = Generating luarocks manifest for Lua 5.5...
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/luarocks-admin make_manifest --local-tree --lua-version=5.5 /usr/lib/luarocks/rocks-5.5/
Depends = luarocks

This hook fails because

luarocks-admin

requires

luarocks.core.cfg

from

lua-luarocks

.

Workaround

pacman -S lua-luarocks

After installing

lua-luarocks

, everything works as expected.

Root Cause

Looking at the PKGBUILD in the Git repository (commit from 2026-03-24), I found the issue:

package_luarocks() {
  depends+=(lua-luarocks)     #  - attempts to add dependency
  depends=(coreutils          # - overwrites the array!
           curl
           lua
           unzip
           zip)
  # ...
}

The

depends

array is overwritten immediately after appending

lua-luarocks

, causing the dependency to be lost.

Correct version should be:

package_luarocks() {
  depends=(coreutils
           curl
           lua
           unzip
           zip
           lua-luarocks)      # Add dependency here
  # or:
  # depends=(coreutils ...)
  # depends+=(lua-luarocks)   # Append after setting
}

Impact

New installations of
```
luarocks
```
are non-functional
Post-installation hooks fail for any package that triggers them
Automated scripts and containers that install
```
luarocks
```
will break
User experience: package appears broken immediately after installation

Suggested Fix

Update the PKGBUILD to correctly include

lua-luarocks

in the

depends

array for the

luarocks

package.

Additional Information

Package version: luarocks 3.13.0-4
Split introduced: 2026-03-24 (Build Date)
Maintainers: Daurnimator, Caleb Maclennan
Package size discrepancy: luarocks (6.7 KB installed) vs lua-luarocks (multiple MB, contains actual Lua modules)

Verification

After installing

lua-luarocks

:

$ luarocks --version
/usr/bin/luarocks 3.13.0
LuaRocks main command-line interface

$ luarocks list

Rocks installed for Lua 5.5
---------------------------
(no rocks installed)

All hooks also complete successfully.

Given that:

The
```
luarocks
```
binary uses Lua 5.5 (
```
#!/usr/bin/lua5.5
```
)
It requires the library files from
```
lua-luarocks
```
to function

I believe this is a bug that should be fixed by adding the missing dependency.

Related Links

Package page: https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/luarocks/
Git repository: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … s/luarocks
Commit that introduced split: 2026-03-24

seth · 2026-03-28 07:20:05

This post was prepared with the assistance of AI for translation and formatting.

Next time make chatgpt search the forum first, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=312844

HHpinky · 2026-03-28 08:53:49

seth wrote:

This post was prepared with the assistance of AI for translation and formatting.
Next time make chatgpt search the forum first, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=312844

Sorry, I ran into this issue while updating and checked "Pacman & Package Upgrade Issues" first—didn't see any related post there (should've searched the whole forum). Good to see it's already been identified and will be fixed soon. Appreciate the quick work! ?

Arch Linux

#1 2026-03-28 04:00:16

luarocks broken after split package update

#2 2026-03-28 07:20:05

Re: luarocks broken after split package update

#3 2026-03-28 08:53:49

Re: luarocks broken after split package update

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