A simple way of configuring Lua to accept the indexing of nil values

gistfile1.c

static int handleNilIndexing (lua_State* luaState)
{
	return 0; // zero return values is equivalent to returning nil
}

lua_State* setupLua()
{
	// Create the new lua state
	lua_State* luaState = luaL_newstate();
	
	// Set the indexing of nil as a valid operation
	lua_pushnil(luaState); // <-- nil
	lua_createtable(luaState, 0, 1); // <-- nil_metatable
	lua_pushcfunction(luaState, handleNilIndexing); // <-- nil_field_handler
	lua_setfield(luaState, -2, "__index"); // nil_metatable.__index = nil_field_handler
	lua_setmetatable(luaState, -2); // nil.metatable = nil_metatable
	lua_pop(luaState, 1); // -x- nil
	
	return luaState;
}