Recursive Require

wiki

if not package.loading then package.loading = {} end

function import(x)

  if package.loading[x] == nil then

    package.loading[x] = true

    require(x)

    package.loading[x] = nil

  end

end

Example Usage

-- without the below statement you can't use something like:

-- import('main') in main.lua

if not package.loading then package.loading = {} end



-- a chatty version of the actual import function above

function import(x)

  if package.loading[x] == nil then

    package.loading[x]=true

    print('loading started for ' .. x)

    require(x)

    print('loading ended for ' .. x)

    package.loading[x]=nil

  else

    print('already loading ' .. x)

  end

end

import "a"

print("second attempt")

import 'a'

a.lua :

import "b"

print "module a"

b.lua :

import "a"

print "module b"

Output:

loading started for a

loading started for b

already loading a

module b

loading ended for b

module a

loading ended for a

second attempt

loading started for a

loading ended for a