To install Lua in Ubuntu:

1 sudo apt-get install libreadline-dev

2 curl -L -R -Ohttps://www.lua.org/ftp/lua-5.4.6.tar.gz

3 tar zxf lua-5.4.6.tar.gz

4 cd lua-5.4.6

5 make all test

6 make install

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)

project(lua LANGUAGES CXX)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)

set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)

find_package(Lua REQUIRED)

add_executable(lua main.cpp)

target_link_libraries(lua ${LUA_LIBRARIES})

install(TARGETS lua LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR} RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR} )

Example:

#include <lua.hpp>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
int main() {
std::string cmd = "a=1+1";


    lua_State* L = luaL_newstate();

    int r = luaL_dostring(L, cmd.c_str());

    if(r == LUA_OK)
    {
        lua_getglobal(L,"a");
        if(lua_isnumber(L, -1))
        {
            float af =(float) lua_tonumber(L,-1);
            std::cout<<"af "<<af<<'\n';
        }
    }
    else
    {
        std::string errmsg=lua_tostring(L,-1);
        std::cout<<errmsg<<'\n';
    }

return 0;
}