Windows C Compilation

On Windows, compiling programs with lde compile and installing C-based LuaRocks packages (like luasocket) requires a C compiler. lde handles this for you automatically.

Automatic MinGW setup

If no compiler is found on your PATH, lde downloads and sets up MinGW (a GCC-based toolchain) into ~/.lde/mingw. This is a one-time setup that happens on first use. After that, lde reuses the cached toolchain for every subsequent build.

The setup takes about a minute the first time. Once done, both lde compile and LuaRocks C packages work without any manual configuration.

Using a different compiler

To use a specific compiler, set the SEA_CC environment variable before running lde:

$env:SEA_CC = "clang"
lde compile