145 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
145 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
<!-- $Id: luac.man,v 1.28 2006/01/06 16:03:34 lhf Exp $ -->
|
|
<HTML>
|
|
<HEAD>
|
|
<TITLE>LUAC man page</TITLE>
|
|
<LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="lua.css">
|
|
</HEAD>
|
|
|
|
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
|
|
|
|
<H2>NAME</H2>
|
|
luac - Lua compiler
|
|
<H2>SYNOPSIS</H2>
|
|
<B>luac</B>
|
|
[
|
|
<I>options</I>
|
|
] [
|
|
<I>filenames</I>
|
|
]
|
|
<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2>
|
|
<B>luac</B>
|
|
is the Lua compiler.
|
|
It translates programs written in the Lua programming language
|
|
into binary files that can be later loaded and executed.
|
|
<P>
|
|
The main advantages of precompiling chunks are:
|
|
faster loading,
|
|
protecting source code from accidental user changes,
|
|
and
|
|
off-line syntax checking.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Precompiling does not imply faster execution
|
|
because in Lua chunks are always compiled into bytecodes before being executed.
|
|
<B>luac</B>
|
|
simply allows those bytecodes to be saved in a file for later execution.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Precompiled chunks are not necessarily smaller than the corresponding source.
|
|
The main goal in precompiling is faster loading.
|
|
<P>
|
|
The binary files created by
|
|
<B>luac</B>
|
|
are portable only among architectures with the same word size and byte order.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<B>luac</B>
|
|
produces a single output file containing the bytecodes
|
|
for all source files given.
|
|
By default,
|
|
the output file is named
|
|
<B>luac.out</B>,
|
|
but you can change this with the
|
|
<B>-o</B>
|
|
option.
|
|
<P>
|
|
In the command line,
|
|
you can mix
|
|
text files containing Lua source and
|
|
binary files containing precompiled chunks.
|
|
This is useful because several precompiled chunks,
|
|
even from different (but compatible) platforms,
|
|
can be combined into a single precompiled chunk.
|
|
<P>
|
|
You can use
|
|
<B>'-'</B>
|
|
to indicate the standard input as a source file
|
|
and
|
|
<B>'--'</B>
|
|
to signal the end of options
|
|
(that is,
|
|
all remaining arguments will be treated as files even if they start with
|
|
<B>'-'</B>).
|
|
<P>
|
|
The internal format of the binary files produced by
|
|
<B>luac</B>
|
|
is likely to change when a new version of Lua is released.
|
|
So,
|
|
save the source files of all Lua programs that you precompile.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<H2>OPTIONS</H2>
|
|
Options must be separate.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<B>-l</B>
|
|
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
|
|
<B>luac</B>
|
|
loads
|
|
<B>luac.out</B>
|
|
and lists its contents.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<B>-o </B><I>file</I>
|
|
output to
|
|
<I>file</I>,
|
|
instead of the default
|
|
<B>luac.out</B>.
|
|
(You can use
|
|
<B>'-'</B>
|
|
for standard output,
|
|
but not on platforms that open standard output in text mode.)
|
|
The output file may be a source file because
|
|
all files are loaded before the output file is written.
|
|
Be careful not to overwrite precious files.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<B>-p</B>
|
|
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
|
|
<B>luac</B>
|
|
loads
|
|
<B>luac.out</B>
|
|
and tests its contents.
|
|
No messages are displayed if the file passes the integrity test.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<B>-s</B>
|
|
strip debug information before writing the output file.
|
|
This saves some space in very large chunks,
|
|
but if errors occur when running a stripped chunk,
|
|
then the error messages may not contain the full information they usually do.
|
|
For instance,
|
|
line numbers and names of local variables are lost.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<B>-v</B>
|
|
show version information.
|
|
<H2>FILES</H2>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<B>luac.out</B>
|
|
default output file
|
|
<H2>SEE ALSO</H2>
|
|
<B>lua</B>(1)
|
|
<BR>
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.lua.org/">http://www.lua.org/</A>
|
|
<H2>DIAGNOSTICS</H2>
|
|
Error messages should be self explanatory.
|
|
<H2>AUTHORS</H2>
|
|
L. H. de Figueiredo,
|
|
R. Ierusalimschy and
|
|
W. Celes
|
|
<!-- EOF -->
|
|
</BODY>
|
|
</HTML>
|