Use this package via the module FindLua that comes with CMake. To use in your CMakeLists.txt: include(FindLua) find_package(Lua REQUIRED) target_link_libraries(main PRIVATE ${LUA_LIBRARIES}) target_include_directories(main PRIVATE ${LUA_INCLUDE_DIR}) For more information about the variables set by this module, please see: https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/FindLua.html