[CMake] Announcement: LuaDist a CMake based Lua Distribution

[Peter Drahoš]

Hello CMake,
It has been quite a while since anyone discussed CMake based distributions on the list. There have been efforts to start such a project before, see CMakePorts[1] project (now dormant). I would like to divert your attention to the LuaDist[2] project, more specifically to its Repository[3] of not only Lua specific modules.

The LuaDist project is aimed at automated distribution of the Lua Programming language, however there are other use cases . For example the Repository aggregates fair share of open source libraries and projects converted to CMake which build (mostly) on Windows, Linux and OSX[4]. These can be beneficial to many developers in context of their projects as they can be included using externalproject_add[5]. Other use case relies on a Lua based CLI tool (luadist) that can deploy dependency chains automatically in a cross-platform manner, making it a rare cross-platform package manager.

Currently, efforts are on the way to make the distribution completely independent from its initial aim to be a Lua distribution. We would like it to become a general purpose CMake based distribution of open-source software and libraries, that would of course require more maintainers and users. This is where you come in, would you (cmake users) be willing to help create and standardize a CMake based distribution ?

Any opinions are welcome.

Peter Drahos

PS: LuaDist as a project is in late pre release candidate stage. An older download is available here[6]

[1] http://code.google.com/p/cmakeports/
[2] http://luadist.org/
[3] https://github.com/LuaDist/Repository
[4] http://travis-ci.org/ , search for LuaDist
[5] http://www.kitware.com/products/html/BuildingExternalProjectsWithCMake2.8.html
[6] https://github.com/LuaDist/Repository/downloads