Gradle vs LuaRocks

Gradle Build Tool is a free, open-source system for automating software builds across projects of different types and sizes. Build logic can use either Kotlin DSL or Groovy DSL. Incremental builds, caching and parallel task execution support the build process, while Gradle downloads and manages transitive dependencies from Maven- and Ivy-compatible repositories. The Gradle Wrapper can provision a build environment and specify the Gradle version used by a project. Its ecosystem covers JVM, Android, C/C++, Swift, Objective-C and assembler projects, and it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. The Tooling API lets IDEs and other tools inspect projects, run builds, receive progress events and cancel operations. Listed support includes Android Studio and Ant, plus Checkstyle, CodeNarc, PMD and JaCoCo. Gradle includes dependency verification. The maker says open-source security fixes are limited by its end-of-life policy; its Security Subscription offers prioritized fixes under SLA and extended maintenance, but does not guarantee a clean scanner report when findings come from third-party libraries.

LuaRocks is a package manager for Lua, with LuaRocks.org hosting rocks and rockspecs for Lua modules. Its command line uses manifests to find packages, choose a version and platform match, and install the corresponding files locally. Rocks carry version dependency information, which LuaRocks uses to install dependencies and load the appropriate module version. Package collections can be organized through the root manifest, per-user manifests, or custom manifests; development versions are kept in a separate manifest and are not installed by default. LuaRocks supports offline installation and platforms including Linux, macOS, Windows, Unix, FreeBSD, and Cygwin. Module authors can register and upload a rockspec, then publish rock files for a version; the current release supports the `luarocks upload` command. The application is described as pure Lua with no library dependencies, though its current release uses helper tools. LuaRocks is free, with a listed price of free.