1LUA(1) General Commands Manual LUA(1)
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6 lua - Lua interpreter
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9 lua [ options ] [ script [ args ] ]
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12 lua is the stand-alone Lua interpreter. It loads and executes Lua pro‐
13 grams, either in textual source form or in precompiled binary form.
14 (Precompiled binaries are output by luac, the Lua compiler.) lua can
15 be used as a batch interpreter and also interactively.
16 The given options (see below) are executed and then the Lua program in
18 file script is loaded and executed. The given args are available to
19 script as strings in a global table named arg. If these arguments con‐
20 tain spaces or other characters special to the shell, then they should
21 be quoted (but note that the quotes will be removed by the shell). The
22 arguments in arg start at 0, which contains the string 'script'. The
23 index of the last argument is stored in arg.n. The arguments given in
24 the command line before script, including the name of the interpreter,
25 are available in negative indices in arg.
26 At the very start, before even handling the command line, lua executes
28 the contents of the environment variable LUA_INIT, if it is defined.
29 If the value of LUA_INIT is of the form '@filename', then filename is
30 executed. Otherwise, the string is assumed to be a Lua statement and
31 is executed.
32 Options start with '-' and are described below. You can use '--' to
34 signal the end of options.
35 If no arguments are given, then -v -i is assumed when the standard
37 input is a terminal; otherwise, - is assumed.
38 In interactive mode, lua prompts the user, reads lines from the stan‐
40 dard input, and executes them as they are read. If a line does not
41 contain a complete statement, then a secondary prompt is displayed and
42 lines are read until a complete statement is formed or a syntax error
43 is found. So, one way to interrupt the reading of an incomplete state‐
44 ment is to force a syntax error: adding a ';' in the middle of a state‐
45 ment is a sure way of forcing a syntax error (except inside multiline
46 strings and comments; these must be closed explicitly). If a line
47 starts with '=', then lua displays the values of all the expressions in
48 the remainder of the line. The expressions must be separated by commas.
49 The primary prompt is the value of the global variable _PROMPT, if this
50 value is a string; otherwise, the default prompt is used. Similarly,
51 the secondary prompt is the value of the global variable _PROMPT2. So,
52 to change the prompts, set the corresponding variable to a string of
53 your choice. You can do that after calling the interpreter or on the
54 command line (but in this case you have to be careful with quotes if
55 the prompt string contains a space; otherwise you may confuse the
56 shell.) The default prompts are "> " and ">> ".
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59 - load and execute the standard input as a file, that is, not
60 interactively, even when the standard input is a terminal.
61 -e stat
63 execute statement stat. You need to quote stat if it contains
64 spaces, quotes, or other characters special to the shell.
65 -i enter interactive mode after script is executed.
67 -l name
69 call require('name') before executing script. Typically used to
70 load libraries.
71 -v show version information.
73
75 luac(1)
76 http://www.lua.org/
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79 Error messages should be self explanatory.
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82 R. Ierusalimschy, L. H. de Figueiredo, and W. Celes
83 $Date: 2006/01/06 16:03:34 $ LUA(1)