Can't require lua due to not finding ar

[itskevp-del]

Not sure if this is a bug or if I'm doing something wrong, so figured I'd post here instead of opening an issue.

I'm developing a command-line utility in C, on windows 10 using Git bash mingw. Everything works fine normally, but I am trying to add liblua, and adding it as a requirement fails at 60% because it is not able to build lzio.c. I am able to install other requirements, (curl & yyjson) but this one specifically fails. Seems as though it isn't able to find the 'ar' archiving program.

xmake q -vD lua
... (everything runs fine)
checking for C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin\ar ... no
checking for the static library archiver (ar: C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin\ar) ... no
... (errors begin)
checking for x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar ... no
checking for the static library archiver (ar: x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar) ... no
error: @programdir\core\main.lua:274: @programdir\actions\build\main.lua:161: @programdir\modules\async\runjobs.lua:26
1: ...gramdir\core\sandbox\modules\import\core\tool\linker.lua:33: cannot get program for ar
... (more errors and expected stack traces)
  => install lua v5.5.0 .. failed

Summary, it says it can't run 'ar', then doesn't have the files it needs, and then quits.
But I DO have ar installed, by chocolatey. It is in my PATH variable. Seems to be the correct program.

$ which ar
/c/ProgramData/chocolatey/bin/ar
$ ar --version
GNU ar (Binutils for MinGW-W64 x86_64, built by Brecht Sanders) 2.37
...
$ ar
Usage: C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\mingw\tools\install\mingw64\x86_64-w64-mingw32\bin\ar.exe [emulation options] [-]
{dmpqrstx}[abcDfilMNoOPsSTuvV] [--plugin <name>] [member-name] [count] archive-file file...
       C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\mingw\tools\install\mingw64\x86_64-w64-mingw32\bin\ar.exe -M [<mri-script]
...

That one is a link to the mingw executable, so I'm pretty sure it's exactly what I need. I was thinking maybe the problem was chocolatey, but xmake IS also looking in chocolatey's bin directory to compile this same exact file, but for gcc and not for ar

[ 60%]: cache compiling.release src\lzio.c
C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc.exe -c -m64 -fvisibility=hidden -O3 -DLUA_COMPAT_5_2 -DLUA_COMPAT_5_1 -DNDEBUG -o
 build_a98c30ea\.objs\lualib\mingw\x86_64\release\src\lzio.c.obj src\lzio.c

It is only looking in C:\Program Files\Git\mingw64\bin, and ar is not installed there. There isn't an executable with the naming convention spelling out the mingw platform. I tried to install ar from xrepo, but it isn't there. Updated xmake to the most recent version, still no. I updated Git for Windows the most recent version to see if it was added recently but no luck. That folder only has bash, git, and sh in it and it doesn't seem like anything else is meant to be there. I tried to make a symbolic link in that directory but it gave a permission denied error, and that seems like a bad solution anyway. I created an alias to point the x86_64...-ar=ar in the path, didn't work. I was trying to figure out how to manually tell xmake to check a different path just for this one program, but wasn't able to find anything in the documentation for setting specific arbitrary programs that might be required by other packages. I want to be able to compile this on new machines under new installations without a complicated setup process for something so small.

My build script is very simple;

-- add_requires("libcurl","yyjson","lua")
add_requires("lua", "libcurl","yyjson")
add_rules("mode.debug")

target("inv")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    add_files("src/lib/*.c")
    add_packages("lua","libcurl","yyjson")
    if is_mode("debug") then
        if is_plat("linux") then
            --set_policy("build.sanitizer.address", true)
            --set_policy("build.sanitizer.undefined", true)
        end
        add_cxflags("-std=c99","-g","-Wall","-Werror") --debug flags for gcc. xmake is supposed to convert this for other common compilers
    else
        add_cxflags("-std=c99")
    end

Is there a simple way to add a line to xmake.lua that will tell it where to look for ar? Or even just to always check my PATH variable for programs? Is there possibly a different way to install it so that xmake can find it? Is the problem in the lua package itself and not my xmake.lua config?

Hope someone can help. Thanks!

[itskevp-del]

Writing this out helped me figure it out...
https://xmake.io/guide/basic-commands/build-configuration.html#build-configuration

$ xmake f -p mingw --sdk=/c/ProgramData/chocolatey/lib/mingw/tools/install/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32
checking for architecture ... x86_64
checking for mingw directory ... C:/ProgramData/chocolatey/lib/mingw/tools/install/mingw64/x86_64-w64-mingw32 ()
checking for Microsoft C/C++ Compiler (x64) ... ok
checking for Microsoft Visual Studio (x64) version ... 2026
note: install or modify (m) these packages (pass -y to skip confirm)?
in xmake-repo:
  -> lua v5.5.0
please input: y (y/n/m)
y
  => install lua v5.5.0 .. ok

Suppose it's because I have multiple mingw directories. Will leave the thread up in case anyone else has the problem