Install luajit-openresty with Homebrew

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• luajit-2.1.1784881202

Project history

The branch exists because OpenResty embeds LuaJIT deeply into its web platform. OpenResty's LuaJIT page says LuaJIT became enabled by default in OpenResty 1.5.8.1 and that modern OpenResty uses its own LuaJIT branch with bug fixes and optimizations for OpenResty workloads.

The repository README is explicit that this is the official OpenResty branch, not an independent fork in the usual sense, because it regularly synchronizes changes from upstream LuaJIT. Its additions include Lua APIs such as table.isempty, table.isarray, table.nkeys, table.clone, jit.prngstate, and thread exdata helpers, plus C APIs and JIT tuning.

Adoption history

Adoption follows OpenResty rather than a standalone language community. OpenResty's components documentation says OpenResty's LuaJIT branch is bundled and enabled by default in OpenResty releases since 1.5.8.1, and later OpenResty documentation recommends the branch for ARM64 and OpenResty-specific APIs.

As a Homebrew and MacPorts package, luajit-openresty also matters outside full OpenResty installs: package users can install the OpenResty-tuned LuaJIT runtime directly for development, extension testing, or applications that need OpenResty's LuaJIT behavior.

How it is used

Users typically install it as the LuaJIT runtime for OpenResty modules, nginx Lua code, and OpenResty-adjacent libraries. It can also be used as a drop-in LuaJIT variant when a project expects OpenResty's extra APIs or JIT defaults.

The important operational distinction is compatibility with OpenResty's runtime assumptions. The branch stays close to upstream LuaJIT, but package maintainers and module authors care about the additional APIs, OpenResty macro, and optimizations documented in the README.

Why package nerds care

For package maintainers, this package is the LuaJIT variant that explains why systems may ship both luajit and luajit-openresty. It is not merely a differently named formula: it represents the runtime ABI and behavioral expectations of the OpenResty ecosystem.

It is also a good example of a language runtime split driven by an embedding platform. The package is small at the command-line surface, but its significance comes from keeping OpenResty's Lua ecosystem reproducible across source builds, distro packages, and Homebrew installs.

Timeline

• 2011: OpenResty's LuaJIT documentation page was created.
• 2014: OpenResty documentation states LuaJIT is enabled by default since OpenResty 1.5.8.1.
• 2017: The branch documents additional OpenResty patches and APIs on top of upstream LuaJIT.
• 2025: GitHub shows v2.1-20250826 as a recent OpenResty LuaJIT release tag.

Related projects

• LuaJIT is the upstream runtime that OpenResty's branch follows.
• OpenResty is the primary platform that bundles and depends on this branch.
• ngx_lua and lua-resty libraries are the main package ecosystem that benefits from OpenResty's LuaJIT behavior.

Sources

• https://github.com/openresty/luajit2
• https://openresty.org/en/components.html
• https://openresty.org/en/luajit.html
• source_facts.package-manager