Re: [ANN] CLX - Ahead-of-Time Lua 5.5 Compiler

Thanks for testing CLX and for your detailed report !

You're absolutely right : CLX currently assumes a consistent toolchain 
throughout the build process, and the generated code was being linked 
against a runtime library built with GCC/LTO while the final executable was 
linked using clang/ld.
I'll investigate improving toolchain detection and handling mixed GCC/Clang 
environments more gracefully.

Thanks again for tracking this down.
Le lundi 22 juin 2026 à 10:58:03 UTC+2, Pierre Chapuis a écrit :

> Nice project.
>
> FYI on an Arch Linux machine, out of the box, building and trying to use 
> the result will fail:
>
> ```
> /usr/bin/ld: /dcs/cwl/git/clx/build/libclx_size.a(runtime.cpp.o): plugin 
> needed to handle lto object /usr/bin/ld: 
> /dcs/cwl/git/clx/build/libclx_size.a(runtime.cpp.o): plugin needed to 
> handle lto object /usr/bin/ld: 
> /dcs/cwl/git/clx/build/libclx_size.a(openlibs.cpp.o): plugin needed to 
> handle lto object /usr/bin/ld: 
> /dcs/cwl/git/clx/build/libclx_size.a(openlibs.cpp.o): plugin needed to 
> handle lto object /usr/bin/ld: /tmp/lto-llvm-d854bc.o: in function 
> `luaopen_t(clx::LState*)': 
> ld-temp.o:(.text._Z9luaopen_tPN3clx6LStateE+0x126): undefined reference to 
> `clx::LTable::gettable(clx::LValue const&)' /usr/bin/ld: 
> ld-temp.o:(.text._Z9luaopen_tPN3clx6LStateE+0x1bb): undefined reference to 
> `clx::call_function(clx::LState*, clx::LValue const&, clx::LValue const*, 
> unsigned long, char const*, int)' /usr/bin/ld: /tmp/lto-llvm-d854bc.o: in 
> function `main': ld-temp.o:(.text.main+0x5): undefined reference to 
> `clx::open(int, char**)' /usr/bin/ld: ld-temp.o:(.text.main+0x10): 
> undefined reference to `clx::openlibs(clx::LState*)' /usr/bin/ld: 
> ld-temp.o:(.text.main+0x20): undefined reference to 
> `clx::close(clx::LState*)' /usr/bin/ld: ld-temp.o:(.text.main+0x6e): 
> undefined reference to `clx::close(clx::LState*)' /usr/bin/ld: 
> ld-temp.o:(.text.main+0xcc): undefined reference to 
> `clx::close(clx::LState*)' clang++:
> error:
> linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
> ```
>
> That is because it will build will GCC but compile the Lua program with 
> clang and attempt to link with (GNU) ld.
>
> Forcing it to use clang / lld for everything works.
>
> -- 
> Pierre Chapuis
>
> On Mon, Jun 22, 2026, at 09:58, Samir Tine wrote:
>
> That's a fair question.
> The goal is not to intentionally exclude Lua features. In fact, CLX 
> already supports essentially all Lua 5.5 syntax (including global, <const> 
> and <close>) and most of the standard library.
>
> The main unsupported areas today are features that fundamentally depend on 
> runtime code generation or deep interpreter introspection, such as load(), 
> loadfile(), dofile(), string.dump(), and most of the debug module.
>
> The traditional Lua C API is also not supported, as CLX uses its own C++ 
> API designed around the AOT execution model (CLX don't use any stack or VM 
> internally)
>
> Apart from these limitations, the goal is full Lua 5.5 compatibility.
>
> Le lundi 22 juin 2026 à 07:13:02 UTC+2, bil til a écrit :
>
> Am So., 21. Juni 2026 um 17:17 Uhr schrieb <[email protected]>: 
> > Support for most Lua 5.5 language features 
>
> Please excuse a "lazy question" (I did not look at your project in 
> detail, please excuse - currently too much different work): 
>
> Which are the main features your project does NOT support? 
>
> (because you do not like them / you think they are too cumbersome? or 
> because the produce any severe problems in your project?) 
>
> Am So., 21. Juni 2026 um 17:17 Uhr schrieb <[email protected]>: 
> > 
> > Hello, 
> > 
> > CLX is a new open-source ahead-of-time compiler for Lua 5.5. 
> > CLX compiles Lua source code to standalone native executables through 
> modern C++20 toolchains (Clang, GCC, and MSVC). 
> > 
> > Current features include: 
> > 
> > Native standalone executable compilation 
> > 
> > Support for most Lua 5.5 language features 
> > 
> > Cross-platform support (Linux, Windows, and macOS) 
> > 
> > Lightweight runtime designed for AOT compilation 
> > 
> > C++ API for native modules 
> > 
> > Example projects (a fully playable Pong game and a Mandelbrot fractal 
> renderer) 
> > 
> > Recent benchmarks show consistent speedups over the standard Lua 
> interpreter and competitive performance with LuaJIT on a number of 
> workloads. 
> > 
> > The project is currently in beta and feedback is welcome. 
> > 
> > Website: 
> > https://samyeyo.github.io/clx 
> > 
> > GitHub: 
> > https://github.com/samyeyo/clx 
> > 
> > Thank you, 
> > 
> > Samir Tine 
> > 
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