📋 ComEXE

lua55ce is a Lua 5.5 interpreter for Windows x64 and Linux x64 that can turn a Lua project into a standalone executable, without any C/C++ compiler.

> lua55ce src\hello.lua                                 # run a script
> lua55ce -x --make src\hello.lua                       # standalone executable, current OS, ~2.0 MiB
> lua55ce -x --make src\hello.lua -t x86_64-windows     # Windows x64, console
> lua55ce -x --make src\hello.lua -t x86_64-windows-gui # Windows x64, GUI subsystem
> lua55ce -x --make src\hello.lua -t x86_64-linux-musl  # Linux x64, static
> lua55ce -x --make src\hello.lua -t x86_64-linux-gnu   # Linux x64, glibc

🚀 Quick start

Download and extract the latest binary release, rename lua55ce-x86_64.exe to lua55ce.exe for convenience:

> lua55ce -v
Lua 5.5.1  Copyright (C) 1994-2025 Lua.org, PUC-Rio, ComEXE 0.0.12 2026-10-11T16:35:28
> mkdir src
> echo print("Hello World!") > src\hello.lua
> lua55ce src\hello.lua
Hello World!
> lua55ce -x --make src\hello.lua
> hello.exe
Hello World!

Option --verbose shows more information:

> lua55ce -x --make src\hello.lua --verbose
Building target 'x86_64-windows' -> hello.exe
NOTE compressing directory 'src'
hello.exe created (2.0 MiB)

The key point is that the whole src directory is packed and included in the standalone executable, not only hello.lua. See Standalone executables for details.

🌐 Cross-compiling

Windows and Linux hosts can build for both systems:

> lua55ce -x --list-targets
x86_64-windows
x86_64-windows-dbg
x86_64-windows-gui
x86_64-linux-musl
x86_64-linux-musl-dbg
x86_64-linux-gnu
x86_64-linux-gnu-dbg
> lua55ce -x --make src\hello.lua -t x86_64-linux-musl

Build	Size
Windows x64, full runtime	1.99 MiB
Windows x64, --nostdlib	1.41 MiB
Linux x64, x86_64-linux-musl (static)	2.82 MiB
Linux x64, x86_64-linux-gnu (glibc)	2.64 MiB

The option --nostdlib strips all the Lua modules from the executable.

🚀 Key features

• Create standalone executables
• Native multithreading
• Built-in libffi & preprocessor
• Built-in libuv, luasocket, LPEG, dkjson
• Built-in SQLite support
• Built-in WebView2 support
• Built-in Win32 API support
• Integrated Package Manager
• Improved UTF-8 support on Windows
• MIT license

📘 Guides & Notes

• Building ComEXE from source
• Fetching JSON data over HTTP
• Using the FFI to wrap a C library
• Building a GUI with WebView2
• Using the FFI to build a Win32 GUI
• Using Easycom with Excel
• Using Fennel with ComEXE
• Differences with Lua PUC

➡️ Next

• Download binaries for Windows x86-64 and Linux x86-64