Dofile Library Directories

[Natejoestev]

Hi, i'm a mod developer for a game Scrapmechanic. there is a main library sm.lua which works with the Lua.workspace.library setting.
but they also have game scripts (eg: $GAME_DATA/Scripts/gameFile.lua) that you can include into your scripts with dofile.

it would be nice to have a setting like:

"Lua.dofileLibrarys": {
  "$GAME_DATA": "C:/Path/to/Game/Data",
  "$CONTENT_DATA": "./", //this is the content of the local mod itself
  //... etc
}

so if i have a file:

dofile "$GAME_DATA/Scripts/main.lua"
---@class A : B
---@field afield string

C:/Path/to/Game/Data/Scripts/main.lua:

---@class B
---@field bfield number

it's like nodejs require, a class is only present when included into the file.
i also have a regex to find the path, if the implementation would require that.

if this can't be acomplished i would be happy to make my own extension.

[Natejoestev]

if i missed something in .luarc.json please tell me.

[C3pa]

If your environment has a customized LUA_PATH variable, you can inform the LLS about that using the runtime.path setting. So, you'd probably need something like:
"Lua.runtime.path": [ "Data/Scripts/?.lua" ]
Where you'd need to adjust the base folder there depending on the default working directory for your environment.

If these libraries are in the global namespace, you can inform the LLS about that using the workspace.library setting.

[Natejoestev]

this is sooo close to what i need.
but scrapmechanic uses custom prefix syntax:
$GAME_DATA/**: C:/.../Scrap Mechanic/Data/**,
$SURVIVAL_DATA/**: C:/.../Scrap Mechanic/Survival/**,
$CONTENT_DATA/**: ./** (this is the local files in the mod),
$CHALLENGE_DATA/**: C:/.../Scrap Mechanic/ChallengeData/**

so the dofile would look like:

dofile '$GAME_DATA/Scripts/gameUtil.lua'
dofile '$SURVIVAL_DATA/Scripts/survivalUtil.lua'

which wouldn't work because it would search for $GAME_DATA as a folder, which isn't a folder anywhere.

[C3pa]

I am out of ideas 😅.

[Natejoestev]

you understand the problem right?
i guess i could add custom plugin. do you know anything about making those?

[C3pa]

Not much, I only know there is a brief guide on making plugins.