Investigate ways to not rely on --shell-escape

[deepakjois]

--shell-escape is required because we are using the datafile module, which queries LuaRocks for the config file location. Luarocks seems to use some sort of shell piping in the codepath used by datafile module.

Maybe there is a way we can figure out the location of the LuaRocks tree without needed to shell out. If so, we can avoid the --shell-escape package.