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1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
2<HTML>
3<HEAD>
4<TITLE>Lua 5.2 readme</TITLE>
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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&middot;
40<A HREF="#install">installation</A>
41&middot;
42<A HREF="#changes">changes</A>
43&middot;
44<A HREF="#license">license</A>
45&middot;
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 &mdash; edit <TT>Makefile</TT>.
198    <LI> How to build Lua &mdash; edit <TT>src/Makefile</TT>.
199    <LI> Lua features &mdash; 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 &mdash; 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 &copy; 1994&ndash;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
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404<SMALL CLASS="footer">
405Last update:
406Sat Nov  9 22:39:16 BRST 2013
407</SMALL>
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