diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5034bcf3..1a0eed8a 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -289,6 +289,24 @@ if(GENERATE_LUADOC)
 endif()
 # }}}
 
+# {{{ compile Lua libs
+if(LUAC_EXECUTABLE)
+    foreach(luafile ${AWE_LUA_FILES})
+        string(REGEX REPLACE ".lua\$" ".luac" luacfile ${luafile})
+        string(REPLACE ${SOURCE_DIR} ${BUILD_DIR} luacfile ${luacfile})
+
+        add_custom_command(
+            COMMAND ${LUAC_EXECUTABLE} -o ${luacfile} ${luafile}
+            OUTPUT ${luacfile}
+            DEPENDS ${luafile})
+
+        set(AWE_LUAC_FILES ${AWE_LUAC_FILES} ${luacfile})
+    endforeach()
+
+    add_custom_target(compile_lua ALL DEPENDS ${AWE_LUAC_FILES})
+endif()
+# }}}
+
 # {{{ dist tarball
 if(BUILD_FROM_GIT)
     add_custom_target(dist
@@ -299,7 +317,7 @@ endif()
 
 # {{{ Installation.
 install(TARGETS ${PROJECT_AWE_NAME} ${PROJECT_AWECLIENT_NAME} RUNTIME DESTINATION bin)
-install(FILES ${AWE_LUA_FILES} DESTINATION ${AWESOME_LUA_LIB_PATH})
+install(FILES ${AWE_LUA_FILES} ${AWE_LUAC_FILES} DESTINATION ${AWESOME_LUA_LIB_PATH})
 install(FILES ${AWE_CONF_FILES} DESTINATION ${AWESOME_CONF_PATH})
 if(GENERATE_MANPAGES)
     install(FILES ${AWE_MAN1_FILES} DESTINATION ${AWESOME_MAN_PATH}/man1)
diff --git a/awesomeConfig.cmake b/awesomeConfig.cmake
index e0d74d38..515412af 100644
--- a/awesomeConfig.cmake
+++ b/awesomeConfig.cmake
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ find_program(GREP_EXECUTABLE grep)
 find_program(GIT_EXECUTABLE git)
 find_program(HOSTNAME_EXECUTABLE hostname)
 find_program(GPERF_EXECUTABLE gperf)
+find_program(LUAC_EXECUTABLE luac)
 # programs needed for man pages
 find_program(ASCIIDOC_EXECUTABLE asciidoc)
 find_program(XMLTO_EXECUTABLE xmlto)