Years ago I started on a little project entitled the LEM Project [1]. It was a project to make distribution of applications written in Lua [2] easier (It's named after the Apollo Lunar Module [3]—aka (also known as) the Lunar Excursion Module; Lua is “moon” in Portuguese). I had a few goals:
And I almost hit all the goals.
The first two were easy. I read over the ZIP file specification [4] and saw that
So armed, I created zip file with some addtional metadata and …
[spc]lucy:~/projects/LEM>./zipf.lua sample.lem
The Eagle Has Landed
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.base64
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.crc
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.env
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.errno
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.fsys
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.hash
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 1.1 MODULES/org.conman.iconv
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.math
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.net
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.pollset
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.process
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.strcore
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 1.0.0 MODULES/org.conman.sys
SunOS sparcv9 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.syslog
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.base64
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.crc
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 1.0.0 MODULES/org.conman.env
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 1.0.0 MODULES/org.conman.errno
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.fsys
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.fsys.magic
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.hash
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 1.1.1 MODULES/org.conman.iconv
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.math
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.net
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.net.ipacl
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.pollset
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.process
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.strcore
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 1.2.0 MODULES/org.conman.sys
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 1.0.2 MODULES/org.conman.syslog
Linux x86 LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.tcc
LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.cc
LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.date
LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.debug
LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.dns.resolv
LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.getopt
LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.string
LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.table
LGPL3+ Lua 5.1 5.1 MODULES/org.conman.unix
MIT Lua 5.1 5.1 0.10 MODULES/lpeg
MIT Lua 5.1 5.1 0.10 MODULES/re
Linux x86 MIT Lua 5.1 5.1 0.12 MODULES/lpeg
Linux x86 MIT Lua 5.2 5.2 0.12 MODULES/lpeg
MIT Lua 5.1 5.2 0.12 MODULES/re
Linux x86 MIT/X11 Lua 5.1 5.1 0.4.work3 MODULES/zlib
MIT/X11 Lua 5.1 5.1 2.0.2 MODULES/socket
Linux x86 MIT/X11 Lua 5.1 5.1 2.0.2 MODULES/socket.core
MIT/X11 Lua 5.1 5.1 2.0.2 MODULES/socket.ftp
MIT/X11 Lua 5.1 5.1 2.0.2 MODULES/socket.http
MIT/X11 Lua 5.1 5.1 2.0.2 MODULES/socket.smtp
MIT/X11 Lua 5.1 5.1 2.0.2 MODULES/socket.tp
MIT/X11 Lua 5.1 5.1 2.0.2 MODULES/socket.url
MIT/X11 Lua 5.1 5.1 1.0.1 MODULES/ltn12
FILES/APPNOTE.TXT
FILES/COPYING
FILES/README
FILES/Miscellaneous Things About Nothing
[spc]lucy:~/projects/LEM>
You can see there are several copies of each module. The modules listed without a system (like Linux or SunOS) are written in Lua; the other ones are in C and both the system and architecture are listed. The license is included, along with the Lua verions the module will work for (it's “minimum version” and “maximum version”) as well as the version of the module (if known).
It's even a valid zip file:
[spc]lucy:~/projects/LEM>unzip -l sample.lem
Archive: sample.lem
The Eagle Has Landed
Length Date Time Name
-------- ---- ---- ----
25472 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.base64
13448 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.crc
12200 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.env
18688 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.errno
57032 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.fsys
24952 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.hash
17664 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.iconv
17648 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.math
77944 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.net
26296 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.pollset
88256 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.process
37848 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.strcore
15392 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.sys
24312 05-24-14 17:10 MODULES/org.conman.syslog
14175 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.base64
8214 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.crc
7193 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.env
10690 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.errno
31885 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.fsys
15567 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.fsys.magic
14067 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.hash
10197 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.iconv
10816 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.math
43651 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.net
25248 04-18-14 20:06 MODULES/org.conman.net.ipacl
15914 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.pollset
49607 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.process
15666 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.strcore
9763 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.sys
13303 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.syslog
21218 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.tcc
5617 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.cc
2500 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.date
3829 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.debug
2966 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.dns.resolv
3260 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.getopt
2464 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.string
5243 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.table
2732 06-12-14 22:04 MODULES/org.conman.unix
40081 05-25-14 15:17 MODULES/lpeg
6029 05-24-14 00:36 MODULES/re
40045 05-28-14 15:24 MODULES/lpeg
40045 05-28-14 15:24 MODULES/lpeg
6286 05-28-14 15:24 MODULES/re
19794 05-30-14 21:29 MODULES/zlib
4451 05-28-14 14:52 MODULES/socket
55449 05-28-14 14:52 MODULES/socket.core
9243 05-28-14 14:52 MODULES/socket.ftp
12330 05-28-14 14:52 MODULES/socket.http
8074 05-28-14 14:52 MODULES/socket.smtp
3612 05-28-14 14:52 MODULES/socket.tp
11036 05-28-14 14:52 MODULES/socket.url
8331 05-28-14 14:52 MODULES/ltn12
161412 05-09-14 01:24 FILES/APPNOTE.TXT
The ZIP file format
7651 05-25-14 18:53 FILES/COPYING
9789 06-07-14 22:13 FILES/README
Much Ado About Nothing
3946 05-10-99 23:00 FILES/Miscellaneous Things About Nothing
If you this this has significance, think otherwise
-------- -------
1250541 57 files
[spc]lucy:~/projects/LEM>
(Although if you try to unzip this file, the unzip program will ask you what you want to do with the duplicate files.)
The intent was that only those modules that match the Lua version, system (if a C-based Lua module) and architecture (again, C-base Lua module) match, load the module; otherwise, it would be ignored.
And it worked. For the most part.
I could load Lua modules written in Lua directly from the zip file with no problem. I even got LuaRocks [5] to run completely from the zip file (with some hacks so it could load the configuration file). But I could not do that for the C-based Lua modules. For those, you had to write them out to disk to load them up. And because of that, I lost interest in continuing the project.
Until now. I just came across MojoELF [6] (via Project: 2ine [7] which was linked via Hacker News [8])—a project to load ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) binaries directly from memory (and those C-based Lua modules I have are ELF binaries), which is exactly what I wanted all those years ago.
[1] https://github.com/spc476/LEM
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Lunar_Module
[4] https://pkware.cachefly.net/webdocs/casestudies/APPNOTE.TXT
[6] https://hg.icculus.org/icculus/mojoelf/file/tip/README.txt
[7] https://www.patreon.com/posts/project-2ine-16513790