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readme.html
1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> 2<HTML> 3<HEAD> 4<TITLE>Lua 5.2 readme</TITLE> 5<LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="lua.css"> 6<META HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> 7<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> 8blockquote, .display { 9 border: solid #a0a0a0 2px ; 10 border-radius: 8px ; 11 padding: 1em ; 12 margin: 0px ; 13} 14 15.display { 16 word-spacing: 0.25em ; 17} 18 19dl.display dd { 20 padding-bottom: 0.2em ; 21} 22 23tt, kbd, code { 24 font-size: 12pt ; 25} 26</STYLE> 27</HEAD> 28 29<BODY> 30 31<HR> 32<H1> 33<A HREF="http://www.lua.org/"><IMG SRC="logo.gif" ALT="Lua" BORDER=0></A> 34Welcome to Lua 5.2 35</H1> 36 37<P> 38<A HREF="#about">about</A> 39· 40<A HREF="#install">installation</A> 41· 42<A HREF="#changes">changes</A> 43· 44<A HREF="#license">license</A> 45· 46<A HREF="contents.html">reference manual</A> 47 48<H2><A NAME="about">About Lua</A></H2> 49 50<P> 51Lua is a powerful, fast, lightweight, embeddable scripting language 52developed by a 53<A HREF="http://www.lua.org/authors.html">team</A> 54at 55<A HREF="http://www.puc-rio.br/">PUC-Rio</A>, 56the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. 57Lua is 58<A HREF="#license">free software</A> 59used in many products and projects around the world. 60 61<P> 62Lua's 63<A HREF="http://www.lua.org/">official web site</A> 64provides complete information 65about Lua, 66including 67an 68<A HREF="http://www.lua.org/about.html">executive summary</A> 69and 70updated 71<A HREF="http://www.lua.org/docs.html">documentation</A>, 72especially the 73<A HREF="http://www.lua.org/manual/5.2/">reference manual</A>, 74which may differ slightly from the 75<A HREF="contents.html">local copy</A> 76distributed in this package. 77 78<H2><A NAME="install">Installing Lua</A></H2> 79 80<P> 81Lua is distributed in 82<A HREF="http://www.lua.org/ftp/">source</A> 83form. 84You need to build it before using it. 85Building Lua should be straightforward 86because 87Lua is implemented in pure ANSI C and compiles unmodified in all known 88platforms that have an ANSI C compiler. 89Lua also compiles unmodified as C++. 90The instructions given below for building Lua are for Unix-like platforms. 91See also 92<A HREF="#other">instructions for other systems</A> 93and 94<A HREF="#customization">customization options</A>. 95 96<P> 97If you don't have the time or the inclination to compile Lua yourself, 98get a binary from 99<A HREF="http://lua-users.org/wiki/LuaBinaries">LuaBinaries</A>. 100Try also 101<A HREF="http://luaforwindows.luaforge.net/">Lua for Windows</A>, 102an easy-to-use distribution of Lua that includes many useful libraries. 103 104<H3>Building Lua</H3> 105 106<P> 107In most Unix-like platforms, simply do "<KBD>make</KBD>" with a suitable target. 108Here are the details. 109 110<OL> 111<LI> 112Open a terminal window and move to 113the top-level directory, which is named <TT>lua-5.2.3</TT>. 114The Makefile there controls both the build process and the installation process. 115<P> 116<LI> 117 Do "<KBD>make</KBD>" and see if your platform is listed. 118 The platforms currently supported are: 119<P> 120<P CLASS="display"> 121 aix ansi bsd freebsd generic linux macosx mingw posix solaris 122</P> 123<P> 124 If your platform is listed, just do "<KBD>make xxx</KBD>", where xxx 125 is your platform name. 126<P> 127 If your platform is not listed, try the closest one or posix, generic, 128 ansi, in this order. 129<P> 130<LI> 131The compilation takes only a few moments 132and produces three files in the <TT>src</TT> directory: 133lua (the interpreter), 134luac (the compiler), 135and liblua.a (the library). 136<P> 137<LI> 138 To check that Lua has been built correctly, do "<KBD>make test</KBD>" 139 after building Lua. This will run the interpreter and print its version string. 140</OL> 141<P> 142If you're running Linux and get compilation errors, 143make sure you have installed the <TT>readline</TT> development package. 144If you get link errors after that, 145then try "<KBD>make linux MYLIBS=-ltermcap</KBD>". 146 147<H3>Installing Lua</H3> 148<P> 149 Once you have built Lua, you may want to install it in an official 150 place in your system. In this case, do "<KBD>make install</KBD>". The official 151 place and the way to install files are defined in the Makefile. You'll 152 probably need the right permissions to install files. 153 154<P> 155 To build and install Lua in one step, do "<KBD>make xxx install</KBD>", 156 where xxx is your platform name. 157 158<P> 159 To install Lua locally, do "<KBD>make local</KBD>". 160 This will create a directory <TT>install</TT> with subdirectories 161 <TT>bin</TT>, <TT>include</TT>, <TT>lib</TT>, <TT>man</TT>, 162 and install Lua as listed below. 163 164 To install Lua locally, but in some other directory, do 165 "<KBD>make install INSTALL_TOP=xxx</KBD>", where xxx is your chosen directory. 166 167<DL CLASS="display"> 168<DT> 169 bin: 170<DD> 171 lua luac 172<DT> 173 include: 174<DD> 175 lua.h luaconf.h lualib.h lauxlib.h lua.hpp 176<DT> 177 lib: 178<DD> 179 liblua.a 180<DT> 181 man/man1: 182<DD> 183 lua.1 luac.1 184</DL> 185 186<P> 187 These are the only directories you need for development. 188 If you only want to run Lua programs, 189 you only need the files in bin and man. 190 The files in include and lib are needed for 191 embedding Lua in C or C++ programs. 192 193<H3><A NAME="customization">Customization</A></H3> 194<P> 195 Three kinds of things can be customized by editing a file: 196<UL> 197 <LI> Where and how to install Lua — edit <TT>Makefile</TT>. 198 <LI> How to build Lua — edit <TT>src/Makefile</TT>. 199 <LI> Lua features — edit <TT>src/luaconf.h</TT>. 200</UL> 201 202<P> 203 You don't actually need to edit the Makefiles because you may set the 204 relevant variables in the command line when invoking make. 205 Nevertheless, it's probably best to edit and save the Makefiles to 206 record the changes you need. 207 208<P> 209 On the other hand, if you need to customize some Lua features, you'll need 210 to edit <TT>src/luaconf.h</TT> before building and installing Lua. 211 The edited file will be the one installed, and 212 it will be used by any Lua clients that you build, to ensure consistency. 213 Further customization is available to experts by editing the Lua sources. 214 215<P> 216 We strongly recommend that you enable dynamic loading in <TT>src/luaconf.h</TT>. 217 This is done automatically for all platforms listed above that have 218 this feature and also for Windows. 219 220<H3><A NAME="other">Building Lua on other systems</A></H3> 221 222<P> 223 If you're not using the usual Unix tools, then the instructions for 224 building Lua depend on the compiler you use. You'll need to create 225 projects (or whatever your compiler uses) for building the library, 226 the interpreter, and the compiler, as follows: 227 228<DL CLASS="display"> 229<DT> 230library: 231<DD> 232lapi.c lcode.c lctype.c ldebug.c ldo.c ldump.c lfunc.c lgc.c llex.c 233lmem.c lobject.c lopcodes.c lparser.c lstate.c lstring.c ltable.c 234ltm.c lundump.c lvm.c lzio.c 235lauxlib.c lbaselib.c lbitlib.c lcorolib.c ldblib.c liolib.c 236lmathlib.c loslib.c lstrlib.c ltablib.c loadlib.c linit.c 237<DT> 238interpreter: 239<DD> 240 library, lua.c 241<DT> 242compiler: 243<DD> 244 library, luac.c 245</DL> 246 247<P> 248 To use Lua as a library in your own programs you'll need to know how to 249 create and use libraries with your compiler. Moreover, to dynamically load 250 C libraries for Lua you'll need to know how to create dynamic libraries 251 and you'll need to make sure that the Lua API functions are accessible to 252 those dynamic libraries — but <EM>don't</EM> link the Lua library 253 into each dynamic library. For Unix, we recommend that the Lua library 254 be linked statically into the host program and its symbols exported for 255 dynamic linking; <TT>src/Makefile</TT> does this for the Lua interpreter. 256 For Windows, we recommend that the Lua library be a DLL. 257 258<P> 259 As mentioned above, you may edit <TT>src/luaconf.h</TT> to customize 260 some features before building Lua. 261 262<H2><A NAME="changes">Changes since Lua 5.1</A></H2> 263 264<P> 265Here are the main changes introduced in Lua 5.2. 266The 267<A HREF="contents.html">reference manual</A> 268lists the 269<A HREF="manual.html#8">incompatibilities</A> that had to be introduced. 270 271<H3>Main changes</H3> 272<UL> 273<LI> yieldable pcall and metamethods 274<LI> new lexical scheme for globals 275<LI> ephemeron tables 276<LI> new library for bitwise operations 277<LI> light C functions 278<LI> emergency garbage collector 279<LI> <CODE>goto</CODE> statement 280<LI> finalizers for tables 281</UL> 282 283Here are the other changes introduced in Lua 5.2: 284<H3>Language</H3> 285<UL> 286<LI> no more fenv for threads or functions 287<LI> tables honor the <CODE>__len</CODE> metamethod 288<LI> hex and <CODE>\z</CODE> escapes in strings 289<LI> support for hexadecimal floats 290<LI> order metamethods work for different types 291<LI> no more verification of opcode consistency 292<LI> hook event "tail return" replaced by "tail call" 293<LI> empty statement 294<LI> <CODE>break</CODE> statement may appear in the middle of a block 295</UL> 296 297<H3>Libraries</H3> 298<UL> 299<LI> arguments for function called through <CODE>xpcall</CODE> 300<LI> optional 'mode' argument to load and loadfile (to control binary x text) 301<LI> optional 'env' argument to load and loadfile (environment for loaded chunk) 302<LI> <CODE>loadlib</CODE> may load libraries with global names (RTLD_GLOBAL) 303<LI> new function <CODE>package.searchpath</CODE> 304<LI> modules receive their paths when loaded 305<LI> optional base in <CODE>math.log</CODE> 306<LI> optional separator in <CODE>string.rep</CODE> 307<LI> <CODE>file:write</CODE> returns <CODE>file</CODE> 308<LI> closing a pipe returns exit status 309<LI> <CODE>os.exit</CODE> may close state 310<LI> new metamethods <CODE>__pairs</CODE> and <CODE>__ipairs</CODE> 311<LI> new option 'isrunning' for <CODE>collectgarbage</CODE> and <CODE>lua_gc</CODE> 312<LI> frontier patterns 313<LI> <CODE>\0</CODE> in patterns 314<LI> new option <CODE>*L</CODE> for <CODE>io.read</CODE> 315<LI> options for <CODE>io.lines</CODE> 316<LI> <CODE>debug.getlocal</CODE> can access function varargs 317</UL> 318 319<H3>C API</H3> 320<UL> 321<LI> main thread predefined in the registry 322<LI> new functions 323<CODE>lua_absindex</CODE>, 324<CODE>lua_arith</CODE>, 325<CODE>lua_compare</CODE>, 326<CODE>lua_copy</CODE>, 327<CODE>lua_len</CODE>, 328<CODE>lua_rawgetp</CODE>, 329<CODE>lua_rawsetp</CODE>, 330<CODE>lua_upvalueid</CODE>, 331<CODE>lua_upvaluejoin</CODE>, 332<CODE>lua_version</CODE>. 333<LI> new functions 334<CODE>luaL_checkversion</CODE>, 335<CODE>luaL_setmetatable</CODE>, 336<CODE>luaL_testudata</CODE>, 337<CODE>luaL_tolstring</CODE>. 338<LI> <CODE>lua_pushstring</CODE> and <CODE>pushlstring</CODE> return string 339<LI> <CODE>nparams</CODE> and <CODE>isvararg</CODE> available in debug API 340<LI> new <CODE>lua_Unsigned</CODE> 341</UL> 342 343<H3>Implementation</H3> 344<UL> 345<LI> max constants per function raised to 2<SUP>26</SUP> 346<LI> generational mode for garbage collection (experimental) 347<LI> NaN trick (experimental) 348<LI> internal (immutable) version of ctypes 349<LI> simpler implementation for string buffers 350<LI> parser uses much less C-stack space (no more auto arrays) 351</UL> 352 353<H3>Lua standalone interpreter</H3> 354<UL> 355<LI> new <CODE>-E</CODE> option to avoid environment variables 356<LI> handling of non-string error messages 357</UL> 358 359<H2><A NAME="license">License</A></H2> 360<A HREF="http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php"> 361<IMG SRC="osi-certified-72x60.png" ALIGN="right" BORDER="0" ALT="[osi certified]" STYLE="padding-left: 30px ;"> 362</A> 363 364<P> 365Lua is free software distributed under the terms of the 366<A HREF="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html">MIT license</A> 367reproduced below; 368it may be used for any purpose, including commercial purposes, 369at absolutely no cost without having to ask us. 370 371The only requirement is that if you do use Lua, 372then you should give us credit by including the appropriate copyright notice somewhere in your product or its documentation. 373 374For details, see 375<A HREF="http://www.lua.org/license.html">this</A>. 376 377<BLOCKQUOTE STYLE="padding-bottom: 0em"> 378Copyright © 1994–2013 Lua.org, PUC-Rio. 379 380<P> 381Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy 382of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal 383in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights 384to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell 385copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is 386furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: 387 388<P> 389The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in 390all copies or substantial portions of the Software. 391 392<P> 393THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR 394IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, 395FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 396AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER 397LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, 398OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN 399THE SOFTWARE. 400</BLOCKQUOTE> 401<P> 402 403<HR> 404<SMALL CLASS="footer"> 405Last update: 406Sat Nov 9 22:39:16 BRST 2013 407</SMALL> 408<!-- 409Last change: revised for Lua 5.2.3 410--> 411 412</BODY> 413</HTML> 414