Lua require not working - lua

Question

I am trying to make one lua file require another. I am following this guide: http://lua-users.org/wiki/ModulesTutorial
My basic test, which should be a trivial hello world, does not work, and I can't figure out why.
Here's a console log which shows all files and all errors:
C:\Users\TestUser\Desktop\LuaTest>dir
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is XXXX-XXXX
Directory of C:\Users\TestUser\Desktop\LuaTest
11/15/2017 03:03 PM <DIR> .
11/15/2017 03:03 PM <DIR> ..
11/15/2017 02:53 PM <DIR> Bar
11/15/2017 03:04 PM 92 BazModule.lua
11/15/2017 02:53 PM <DIR> Foo
11/15/2017 03:08 PM 139 main.lua
2 File(s) 231 bytes
4 Dir(s) 253,774,073,856 bytes free
C:\Users\TestUser\Desktop\LuaTest>lua main.lua
lua: main.lua:1: module 'BazModule' not found:
no field package.preload['BazModule']
no file 'C:\dev\LuaDist\bin'
no file '.\BazModule.dll'
no file 'C:\dev\LuaDist\bin\..\lib\lua\BazModule.dll'
no file 'C:\dev\LuaDist\bin\..\lib\lua\loadall.dll'
stack traceback:
[C]: in function 'require'
main.lua:1: in main chunk
[C]: ?
C:\Users\TestUser\Desktop\LuaTest>type main.lua
local baz = require("BazModule")
baz.Baz()
local bar = require("Bar.BarModule")
bar.Bar()
local foo = require("Foo.FooModule")
foo.Foo()
C:\Users\TestUser\Desktop\LuaTest>type BazModule.lua
local BazModule = {}
function BazModule.Baz()
print("Hello Baz!")
end
return BazModule
C:\Users\TestUser\Desktop\LuaTest>lua -v
Lua 5.1.5 Copyright (C) 1994-2012 Lua.org, PUC-Rio
The expected output should be
Hello Baz!
Hello Bar!
Hello Foo!
But it can't find any of the files adjacent to main.lua and I don't understand why.

Answer 1

require searches in directories listed in package.path (for Lua files) and package.cpath (for compiled libraries).
Your error message…
lua: main.lua:1: module 'BazModule' not found:
no field package.preload['BazModule']
no file 'C:\dev\LuaDist\bin'
no file '.\BazModule.dll'
no file 'C:\dev\LuaDist\bin\..\lib\lua\BazModule.dll'
no file 'C:\dev\LuaDist\bin\..\lib\lua\loadall.dll'
indicates the paths that require searched in. It seems that package.path is completely empty, or maybe there's a single malformed path pattern in there. (Which would be C:\dev\LuaDist\bin.)
The way the search for a module foo.bar works is that ? is substituted by foo/bar (or foo\bar – depending on OS) and so ./?.lua would find ./foo/bar.lua.
So the way to fix this is to (a) fix the place where you (or something that you installed) are/is mangling the package.path (via environment variable, startup script, …?) and/or (b) add the current directory to the search path.