How do I create a Lua module inside a Lua module in C?

Question

I have an Actor that I want to give a Script .

Instead of having multiple shared-objects, I would like to have a single, top-level module that includes its own dependencies.

In other words, I want to be able to do this:

Actor  = require 'Actor'
Script = require 'Actor.Script'

script = Script("To be, or not to be ...");
actor  = Actor();

Both of these simply return functions which create userdata of both Actor and Actor.Script types. My problem is that, while I can get this code to load, it doesn't work as expected. It seems that Script simply returns an Actor userdata somehow.

print(script) => Actor 0x7fb7a240e998
print(actor)  => Actor 0x7fb7a240a478

I was expecting:

print(script) => Actor.Script 0x7fb7a240e998
print(actor)  => Actor 0x7fb7a240a478

If I 'bust-out' the code into two different modules, I get the expected results, but I would really like to have this in a single module.

I am compiling on OSX and Clang with:

clang -Wall -I./ -I/usr/local/include/ -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup actor.c script.c -o Actor.so -L./ -L/usr/local/lib

Here is the code I am using:

actor.c:

#include "common.h"

#define ACTOR_LIB "Actor"

typedef struct Actor {
    struct Script *script;
} Actor;

/*
 * Allocate, initialize, and push a new Actor onto the stack.
 * Returns a pointer to that Actor.
 */
Actor*
lua_newactor (lua_State *L)
{
    Actor *actor = lua_malloc(L, sizeof(Actor));
    actor->script = NULL;
    return actor;
}

/*
 * Make sure the argument at index N is a actor and return it if it is.
 */
Actor*
lua_checkactor (lua_State *L, int index)
{
    return (Actor *) luaL_checkudata(L, index, ACTOR_LIB);
}

static int
actor_new (lua_State* L)
{
    Actor *actor = lua_newactor(L);
    lua_pushobject(L, actor, ACTOR_LIB);
    return 1;
}

static int
actor_print (lua_State* L)
{
    Actor *actor = lua_checkactor(L, 1);
    lua_pushfstring(L, "%s %p", ACTOR_LIB, actor);
    return 1;
}

static const luaL_Reg actor_methods[] = {
    {"__tostring", actor_print},
    { NULL, NULL }
};

int 
luaopen_Actor (lua_State * L)
{
    /* create metatable */
    luaL_newmetatable(L, ACTOR_LIB);

    /* metatable.__index = metatable */
    lua_pushvalue(L, -1);
    lua_setfield(L, -1, "__index");

    /* register methods */
    luaL_setfuncs(L, actor_methods, 0);

    /* Actor() => new Actor */
    lua_pushcfunction(L, actor_new);

    return 1;
}

script.c:

#include "common.h"

#define SCRIPT_LIB "Actor.Script"

typedef struct Script {
    const char *string;
} Script;

/*
 * Allocate a new Script to be passed around.
 */
Script *
lua_newscript (lua_State *L, const char *string)
{
    if (string == NULL)
        luaL_error(L, "`string` cannot be empty!");

    Script *script = (Script*) lua_malloc(L, sizeof(Script));
    script->string = string;
    return script;
}

/*
 * Make sure the argument at index N is a Script and return it if it is.
 */
Script *
lua_checkscript (lua_State *L, int index)
{
    return (Script *) luaL_checkudata(L, index, SCRIPT_LIB);
}

static int 
script_new (lua_State *L)
{
    const char *filename = luaL_checkstring(L, 1);
    Script *script = lua_newscript(L, filename);
    lua_pushobject (L, script, SCRIPT_LIB);
    return 1;
}

static int
script_print (lua_State* L)
{
    Script *script = lua_checkscript(L, 1);
    lua_pushfstring(L, "%s %p", SCRIPT_LIB, script);
    return 1;
}

static const luaL_Reg script_methods[] = {
    {"__tostring", script_print},
    { NULL, NULL }
};

int 
luaopen_Actor_Script (lua_State *L)
{
    /* create metatable */
    luaL_newmetatable(L, SCRIPT_LIB);

    /* metatable.__index = metatable */
    lua_pushvalue(L, -1);
    lua_setfield(L, -1, "__index");

    /* register methods */
    luaL_setfuncs(L, script_methods, 0);

    /* Push a function: Script(...) => new script */
    lua_pushcfunction(L, script_new);

    return 1;
}

common.h:

#ifndef COMMON
#define COMMON

#include <lua.h>
#include <lauxlib.h>
#include <lualib.h>

/*
 * Allocates size_t memory on the given Lua state.
 * lua_newuserdata automatically pushes it, so we pop it.
 */
static
void *
lua_malloc (lua_State *L, size_t size)
{
    void *p = lua_newuserdata(L, size);
    lua_pop(L, 1);
    return p;
}

/*
 * Associate an object pointer with given name and push that onto the stack.
 */
static
void
lua_pushobject (lua_State *L, void *object_pointer, const char *metatable_name)
{
    lua_pushlightuserdata(L, object_pointer);
    luaL_getmetatable(L, metatable_name);
    lua_setmetatable(L, -2);
}

#endif

Answer 1

In this case, the module and submodule functions were correct in C. It follows the form of luaopen_Parent_Child_..._Descendant as the function name in C and Parent.Child.Descendant in Lua.

The problem here was that I was confusing lua_pushlightuserdata with lua_newuserdata in terms of what gets pushed onto the stack. lua_pushlightuserdata all share the same metatable, so I couldn't have separate objects.