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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 pro-
       grams, 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 con-
       tain  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  stan-
       dard  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 state-
       ment is to force a syntax error: adding a ';' in the middle of a state-
       ment 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)