[Documentation] Installation instructions for release

[HarimbolaSantatra]

Issue Description

I cannot install lua-language-server from release. I'm going to assume it's a skill issue.
Looking at the documentation, I find that there's some missing instruction on it.

I followed these step:

1. Download the latest release: lua-language-server-3.18.2-linux-x64.tar.gz
2. Unzip it
3. Copy to the bin directory: cp -v lua-language-server ~/.local/bin
4. Launch it: lua-language-server, but I get the error:

lua-language-server: (main.lua):85: cannot open /home/myuser/.local/main.lua: No such file or directory
stack traceback:
        [C]: in function 'assert'
        (main.lua):85: in main chunk
        (bootstrap.lua):17: in main chunk
        [C]: in ?

So I tried to copy the file and I get a stack overflow error:

$ lua-language-server
lua-language-server: /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:50: stack overflow
stack traceback:
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:50: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        ...     (skipping 166641 levels)
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        /home/myuser/.local/main.lua:85: in main chunk
        (main.lua):85: in main chunk
        (bootstrap.lua):17: in main chunk
        [C]: in ?

What did I miss and what's the correct way to install from releases ?

Additional Notes

My environment

• Ubuntu 24
• Release: I tried with both 3.18.2 and 3.16.1

[tomlau10]

IIUC the lua-language-server executable is just the underlying modded lua interpreter, while the logic are within all those lua scripts.
I don't think you can just copy the binary to make it work 🤔
My best suggestion is to symlink the lua-language-server add it to ~/.local/bin

please see tested in windows wsl2 ubuntu section in this reply: #3122 (comment)

[carsakiller]

Like Tom said, the language server uses a mix of compiled C++ for the interpreter, and Lua for all the language-server specific logic. The Lua files cannot be separated from the binary as they are expected to be found in current working directory - as seen in the repository.

There is a tip in the website's install instructions that discusses symlinking if you'd like to have an entrypoint elsewhere.

[HarimbolaSantatra]

Using a symlink worked! Thanks!

ln -s /path/to/lua-language-server ~/.local/bin