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+# Creating LuaRocks with GNU autotools
+
+Note that LuaRocks requires packages to be relocatable, and GNU autotools by
+default builds non-relocatable packages. For many programs it's not necessary
+to do anything particular to make them relocatable; applications which need to
+find resources at run-time may be problematic. See GNU Smalltalk for one
+approach (look at the RELOCATABILITY section in its configure.ac).
+[Zee](http://github.com/rrthomas/zee) uses another approach, of patching in
+paths for in-place running of the program during development, and relying on
+Lua search paths at run-time, purely to find Lua modules. Search for
+'in_place_lua_path'.
+
+Use a rockspec template like the following, and call it $PACKAGE.rockspec.in:
+
+```
+package="@PACKAGE@"
+ version="@VERSION@-1"
+ source = {
+   url = "https://github.com/downloads/<USER>/@PACKAGE@/@PACKAGE@-@VERSION@.tar.gz",
+   md5 = "@MD5@",
+   dir = "@PACKAGE@-@VERSION@"
+ }
+ description = {
+   summary = "<Short summary>",
+   detailed = [[
+       <Detailed information.>
+   ]],
+   homepage = "http://github.com/<USER>/@PACKAGE@/",
+   license = "<LICENSE>"
+ }
+ dependencies = {
+   "lua >= 5.1"
+ }
+ build = {
+   type = "command",
+   build_command = "LUA=$(LUA) CPPFLAGS=-I$(LUA_INCDIR) ./configure --prefix=$(PREFIX) --libdir=$(LIBDIR) --datadir=$(LUADIR) && make clean && make",
+   install_command = "make install"
+ }
+```
+
+Add "$PACKAGE.rockspec.in" to AC_CONFIG_FILES in your configure.ac:
+
+Add or amend the following rules in your Makefile.am:
+
+```
+ROCKSPEC = $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)-1.rockspec
+```
+
+```
+$(ROCKSPEC): $(PACKAGE).rockspec dist
+        sed -e 's/@MD5@/'`$(MD5SUM) $(distdir).tar.gz | \
+        cut -d " " -f 1`'/g' < $(PACKAGE).rockspec > $@
+```
+
+```
+EXTRA_DIST = $(PACKAGE).rockspec.in
+```
+
+```
+DISTCLEANFILES = $(PACKAGE).rockspec
+```
+
+You can use [woger](http://github.com/rrthomas/woger/) to automate your
+releases, uploading rockspecs to luarocks.org and announcements to the Lua
+mailing list. The details are evolving, so see woger itself for details, and a
+frequently-updated project such as
+[luaposix](http://github.com/luaposix/luaposix/) for example Makefile.am code.