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luac50(1) [debian man page]

LUAC(1) 						      General Commands Manual							   LUAC(1)

NAME

       luac - Lua compiler

SYNOPSIS

       luac [ options ] [ filenames ]

DESCRIPTION

       luac  is  the Lua compiler.  It translates programs written in the Lua programming language into binary files that can be latter loaded and
       executed.

       The main advantages of precompiling chunks are: faster loading, protecting source code from user changes, and off-line syntax checking.

       Pre-compiling does not imply faster execution because in Lua chunks are always compiled into bytecodes before being executed.  luac  simply
       allows those bytecodes to be saved in a file for later execution.

       luac produces a single output file containing the bytecodes for all source files given.	By default, the output file is named luac.out, but
       you can change this with the -o option.

       The binary files created by luac are portable to all architectures with the same word size.  This means that  binary  files  created  on  a
       32-bit  platform  (such	as Intel) can be read without change in another 32-bit platform (such as Sparc), even if the byte order (``endian-
       ness'') is different.  On the other hand, binary files created on a 16-bit platform cannot be read in a 32-bit platform, nor vice-versa.

       In the command line, you can mix text files containing Lua source and binary files containing precompiled chunks.  This is useful  to  com-
       bine several precompiled chunks, even from different (but compatible) platforms, into a single precompiled chunk.

       You can use - to indicate the standard input as a source file and -- to signal the end of options (that is, all remaining arguments will be
       treated as files even if they start with -).

       The internal format of the binary files produced by luac is likely to change when a new version of Lua is released.  So,  save  the  source
       files of all Lua programs that you precompile.

OPTIONS

       Options must be separate.

       -l     produce  a  listing  of  the  compiled bytecode for Lua's virtual machine.  Listing bytecodes is useful to learn about Lua's virtual
	      machine.	If no files are given, then luac loads luac.out and lists its contents.

       -o file
	      output to file, instead of the default luac.out.	The output file may be a source file because all files are loaded before the  out-
	      put file is written.  Be careful not to overwrite precious files.

       -p     load files but do not generate any output file.  Used mainly for syntax checking and for testing precompiled chunks: corrupted files
	      will probably generate errors when loaded.  Lua always performs a thorough integrity test  on  precompiled  chunks.   Bytecode  that
	      passes  this test is completely safe, in the sense that it will not break the interpreter.  However, there is no guarantee that such
	      code does anything sensible.  (None can be given, because the halting problem is unsolvable.)  If no  files  are	given,	then  luac
	      loads luac.out and tests its contents.  No messages are displayed if the file passes the integrity test.

       -s     strip  debug  information before writing the output file.  This saves some space in very large chunks, but if errors occur when run-
	      ning these chunks, then the error messages may not contain the full information they usually do (line numbers and  names	of  locals
	      are lost).

       -v     show version information.

FILES

       luac.out       default output file

SEE ALSO

       lua(1)
       http://www.lua.org/

DIAGNOSTICS

       Error messages should be self explanatory.

AUTHORS

       L. H. de Figueiredo, R. Ierusalimschy and W. Celes (lua@tecgraf.puc-rio.br)

								2002/12/13 11:45:12							   LUAC(1)

Check Out this Related Man Page

LUA(1)							      General Commands Manual							    LUA(1)

NAME

       lua - Lua interpreter

SYNOPSIS

       lua [ options ] [ script [ args ] ]

DESCRIPTION

       lua  is	the stand-alone Lua interpreter.  It loads and executes Lua programs, either in textual source form or in precompiled binary form.
       (Precompiled binaries are output by luac, the Lua compiler.)  lua can be used as a batch interpreter and also interactively.

       The given options (see below) are executed and then the Lua program in file script is loaded and executed.  The given args are available to
       script  as  strings  in	a  global  table named arg.  If these arguments contain spaces or other characters special to the shell, then they
       should be quoted (but note that the quotes will be removed by the shell).  The arguments in arg start  at  0,  which  contains  the  string
       'script'.  The index of the last argument is stored in arg.n.  The arguments given in the command line before script, including the name of
       the interpreter, are available in negative indices in arg.

       At the very start, before even handling the command line, lua executes the contents of the environment variable LUA_INIT, if it is defined.
       If the value of LUA_INIT is of the form '@filename', then filename is executed.	Otherwise, the string is assumed to be a Lua statement and
       is executed.

       Options start with '-' and are described below.	You can use '--' to signal the end of options.

       If no arguments are given, then -v -i is assumed when the standard input is a terminal; otherwise, - is assumed.

       In interactive mode, lua prompts the user, reads lines from the standard input, and executes them as they are read.  If	a  line  does  not
       contain	a  complete  statement,  then  a secondary prompt is displayed and lines are read until a complete statement is formed or a syntax
       error is found.	So, one way to interrupt the reading of an incomplete statement is to force a syntax error: adding a ';' in the middle	of
       a  statement is a sure way of forcing a syntax error (except inside multiline strings and comments; these must be closed explicitly).  If a
       line starts with '=', then lua displays the values of all the expressions in the remainder of the line. The expressions must  be  separated
       by  commas.   The  primary  prompt is the value of the global variable _PROMPT, if this value is a string; otherwise, the default prompt is
       used.  Similarly, the secondary prompt is the value of the global variable _PROMPT2.  So, to change  the  prompts,  set	the  corresponding
       variable to a string of your choice.  You can do that after calling the interpreter or on the command line (but in this case you have to be
       careful with quotes if the prompt string contains a space; otherwise you may confuse the shell.)  The default prompts are "> " and ">> ".

OPTIONS

       -      load and execute the standard input as a file, that is, not interactively, even when the standard input is a terminal.

       -e stat
	      execute statement stat.  You need to quote stat if it contains spaces, quotes, or other characters special to the shell.

       -i     enter interactive mode after script is executed.

       -l name
	      call require('name') before executing script.  Typically used to load libraries.

       -v     show version information.

SEE ALSO

       luac(1)
       http://www.lua.org/

DIAGNOSTICS

       Error messages should be self explanatory.

AUTHORS

       R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, and W. Celes

							   $Date: 2006/01/06 16:03:34 $ 						    LUA(1)
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