`apt install luarocks` could be updated to support lua5.5

Support and Help
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1

Ubuntu Support Template

Ubuntu Version:
26.04

Desktop Environment (if applicable):
Docker container running on an M1 macOS laptop

Problem Description:
Luarocks 3.8.0 is not the current >= 3.13.0. apt install luarocks will by default install new packages for lua5.1 and does not contain updates to support lua5.5.

Relevant System Information:
It is a Docker container.

luarocks --version  # /usr/bin/luarocks 3.8.0  # Not current >= 3.13.0

Steps to reproduce

% docker run -it ubuntu:26.04

apt-get update -q -q --yes
apt-get install --yes -q -q lua5.5 luarocks
lua -v  # Lua 5.1.5  # Not current >= v5.5.0 that we just installed
luarocks --version  # /usr/bin/luarocks 3.8.0  # Not current >= 3.13.0

https://luarocks.org
https://www.lua.org/versions.html

2

I think there is a misunderstanding of what apt is and does. It doesn’t run some sort of installer of Lua; just installs DEB packages. Such are just archives, containing the files to install, essentially. And, by policy, you won’t get a newer version than at feature freeze time.

3

Luarocks software is imported from Debian.

The best and fastest way to get a new version into the next release of Ubuntu is to help get that new version into Debian.

Let’s see what https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/luarocks has to say…

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image860Ă—530 169 KB

…and there’s everything you need to know. 3.11 is in Debian, but not 3.13. On a different system, I can see that 3.11 is also in Ubuntu 26.10, to be released in October.

If you want to help bring 3.13 to Debian (and thence to Ubuntu), you can also see the link to the Lua maintainers – reach out to them and offer to help.

You can also see open bugs – feel free to help squash those.

And you can see Lintian warnings that need to be addressed – pitch in!

Debian is 100% volunteer, and more help is welcome. They will train you how to do it!

3 Likes
4

What is in the newer version that you need so badly? We may be able to advise

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support Lua 5.5 by catwell · Pull Request #1844 · luarocks/luarocks · GitHub support for Lua 5.5 was merged on 26 Dec 2025 and is in v3.13.0.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lua5.5/+bug/2160601

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I’ve just read the introduction of that report, and I think you are barking up the wrong tree with that one:

That’s most likely caused by the packaging bug you’ve filed. I’ll reply in the other thread with some additional thoughts on that.

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The packaging bug has a fix in place that I have tested locally and approved.
That fix does NOT fix this bug.

9

Where on https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/luarocks is the button that I click to create a Debian issue like I created the Ubuntu issue?

10

You’ll probably need to purge and reinstall luarocks for the configuration to be redone. This looks like the fallout from the other bug.

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Did you try doing that?

No change after…

apt-get remove lua5.5 luarocks
apt-get install lua5.5 luarocks
luarocks --lua-version=5.4 config | grep INC # → “/usr/include/lua5.4”, true
luarocks --lua-version=5.5 config | grep INC # → Nothing!!

12

That should be apt purge luarocks plus rm -r ~/.luarocks. BTW, apt-get is deprecated; one is supposed to use plain apt, which has assimilated most of the relevant apt-get commands.

Please put all log and other console/terminal output in pre-formatted code blocks (open a new line and click the </> icon in the editor first, then paste into the new element), ideally wrapped in a “Hide Details” element, if it’s more than just a few lines. See items 4 and 5 in the Posting Guide.

Optional helper script

If you are so inclined, I took it upon myself to provide a little helper script for that. :sweat_droplets:

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https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1142093

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