It's really pretty rough compared to everything else I've used. I really don't feel like luarocks solves very many of my problems. A lot of gaps in there, or libraries that only target 5.1, or only luajit. Or are completely unmaintained, or have poorly documented dependencies on C libraries. etc etc.
I use lua a lot and like it fine but the build/dependency/tooling situation is a fucking mess. It exposes you to a lot of the inconvenience of C in the end.
Yeah, my experience is limited mostly to web dev, via OpenResty, and game dev, via love2d.
The Lua libraries in these areas are very well maintained.
That said 90% of the time libraries ship as a single lua file and it’s often better to copy and paste it into your project. I have a modified version of lume I like to use floating around :)
This spartan approach to libraries is a strength of Lua.
I use lua a lot and like it fine but the build/dependency/tooling situation is a fucking mess. It exposes you to a lot of the inconvenience of C in the end.