文章目录
1 – Introduction
Lua is an extension programming language designed to support general procedural programming with data description facilities. It also offers good support for object-oriented programming, functional programming, and data-driven programming. Lua is intended to be used as a powerful, light-weight scripting language for any program that needs one. Lua is implemented as a library, written in clean C (that is, in the common subset of ANSI C and C++).
Being an extension language, Lua has no notion of a “main” program: it only works embedded in a host client, called the embedding program or simply the host.This host program can invoke functions to execute a piece of Lua code, can write and read Lua variables, and can register C functions to be called by Lua code.
The Lua distribution includes a sample host program called lua, which uses the Lua library to offer a complete, stand-alone Lua interpreter.
2 – The Language
2.1 – Lexical Conventions
Literal strings can also be defined using a long format enclosed by long brackets. We define an opening long bracket of level n as an opening square bracket followed by n equal signs followed by another opening square bracket. So, an opening long bracket of level 0 is written as [[, an opening long bracket of level 1 is written as [=[, and so on. A closing long bracket is defined similarly; for instance, a closing long bracket of level 4 is written as ]====]. A long string starts with an opening long bracket of any level and ends at the first closing long bracket of the same level. Literals in this bracketed form can run for several lines, do not interpret any escape sequences, and ignore long brackets of any other level. They can contain anything except a closing bracket of the proper level.
For convenience, when the opening long bracket is immediately followed by a newline, the newline is not included in the string. As an example, in a system using ASCII (in which ‘a’ is coded as 97, newline is coded as 10, and ‘1’ is coded as 49), the five literal strings below denote the same string:
a = 'alo\n123"'
a = "alo\n123\""
a = '\97lo\10\04923"'
a = [[alo
123"]]
a = [==[
alo
123"]==]
2.2 – Values and Types
Lua is a dynamically typed language. This means that variables do not have types; only values do. There are no type definitions in the language. All values carry their own type.
All values in Lua are first-class values. This means that all values can be stored in variables, passed as arguments to other functions, and returned as results.
There are eight basic types in Lua: nil, boolean, number, string, function, userdata, thread, and table.
Nil is the type of the value nil, whose main property is to be different from any other value; it usually represents the absence of a useful value. Boolean is the type of the values false and true. Both nil and false make a condition false; any other value makes it true.
Lua can call (and manipulate) functions written in Lua and functions written in C.
The type userdata is provided to allow arbitrary C data to be stored in Lua variables. This type corresponds to a block of raw memory and has no pre-defined operations in Lua, except assignment and identity test. However, by using metatables, the programmer can define operations for userdata values. Userdata values cannot be created or modified in Lua, only through the C API. This guarantees the integrity of data owned by the host program.
The type thread represents independent threads of execution and it is used to implement coroutines. Do not confuse Lua threads with operating-system threads. Lua supports coroutines on all systems, even those that do not support threads.
The type table implements associative arrays, that is, arrays that can be indexed not only with numbers, but with any value (except nil). Tables can be heterogeneous; that is, they can contain values of all types (except nil). Tables are the sole data structuring mechanism in Lua; they can be used to represent ordinary arrays, symbol tables, sets, records, graphs, trees, etc. To represent records, Lua uses the field name as an index. The language supports this representation by providing a.name as syntactic sugar for a["name"].
Like indices, the value of a table field can be of any type (except nil). In particular, because functions are first-class values, table fields can contain functions. Thus tables can also carry methods.
Tables, functions, threads, and (full) userdata values are objects: variables do not actually contain these values, only references to them. Assignment, parameter passing, and function returns always manipulate references to such values; these operations do not imply any kind of copy.
The library function type returns a string describing the type of a given value.
2.3 – Variables
Variables are places that store values. There are three kinds of variables in Lua: global variables, local variables, and table fields.
A single name can denote a global variable or a local variable (or a function’s formal parameter, which is a particular kind of local variable):
var ::= Name
Name denotes identifiers, as defined in §2.1.
Any variable is assumed to be global unless explicitly declared as a local. Local variables are lexically scoped: local variables can be freely accessed by functions defined inside their scope.
Before the first assignment to a variable, its value is nil.
Square brackets are used to index a table:
var ::= prefixexp `[´ exp `]´
The meaning of accesses to global variables and table fields can be changed via metatables.
The syntax var.Name is just syntactic sugar for var[“Name”]:
var ::= prefixexp `.´ Name
All global variables live as fields in ordinary Lua tables, called environment tables or simply environments. Each function has its own reference to an environment, so that all global variables in this function will refer to this environment table. When a function is created, it inherits the environment from the function that created it. To get the environment table of a Lua function, you call getfenv. To replace it, you call setfenv.
2.4 – Statements
2.4.1 – Chunks
The unit of execution of Lua is called a chunk. A chunk is simply a sequence of statements, which are executed sequentially. Each statement can be optionally followed by a semicolon.
chunk ::= {stat [`;´]}
There are no empty statements and thus ‘;;’ is not legal.
Lua handles a chunk as the body of an anonymous function with a variable number of arguments. As such, chunks can define local variables, receive arguments, and return values.
2.4.2 – Blocks
A block is a list of statements; syntactically, a block is the same as a chunk:
block ::= chunk
A block can be explicitly delimited to produce a single statement:
stat ::= do block end
Explicit blocks are useful to control the scope of variable declarations. Explicit blocks are also sometimes used to add a return or break statement in the middle of another block.
2.4.3 – Assignment
Lua allows multiple assignments. Therefore, the syntax for assignment defines a list of variables on the left side and a list of expressions on the right side. The elements in both lists are separated by commas:
stat ::= varlist `=´ explist
varlist ::= var {`,´ var}
explist ::= exp {`,´ exp}
Before the assignment, the list of values is adjusted to the length of the list of variables. If there are more values than needed, the excess values are thrown away. If there are fewer values than needed, the list is extended with as many nil’s as needed. If the list of expressions ends with a function call, then all values returned by that call enter the list of values, before the adjustment (except when the call is enclosed in parentheses; ).
2.4.7 – Local Declarations
Local variables can be declared anywhere inside a block. The declaration can include an initial assignment:
stat ::= local namelist [`=´ explist]
If present, an initial assignment has the same semantics of a multiple assignment. Otherwise, all variables are initialized with nil.
A chunk is also a block, and so local variables can be declared in a chunk outside any explicit block. The scope of such local variables extends until the end of the chunk.
2.5 – Expressions
The basic expressions in Lua are the following:
exp ::= prefixexp
exp ::= nil | false | true
exp ::= Number
exp ::= String
exp ::= function
exp ::= tableconstructor
exp ::= `...´
exp ::= exp binop exp
exp ::= unop exp
prefixexp ::= var | functioncall | `(´ exp `)´
Both function calls and vararg expressions can result in multiple values. If an expression is used as a statement (only possible for function calls ), then its return list is adjusted to zero elements, thus discarding all returned values. If an expression is used as the last (or the only) element of a list of expressions, then no adjustment is made (unless the call is enclosed in parentheses). In all other contexts, Lua adjusts the result list to one element, discarding all values except the first one.
Here are some examples:
f() -- adjusted to 0 results
g(f(), x) -- f() is adjusted to 1 result
g(x, f()) -- g gets x plus all results from f()
a,b,c = f(), x -- f() is adjusted to 1 result (c gets nil)
a,b = ... -- a gets the first vararg parameter, b gets
-- the second (both a and b can get nil if there
-- is no corresponding vararg parameter)
a,b,c = x, f() -- f() is adjusted to 2 results
a,b,c = f() -- f() is adjusted to 3 results
return f() -- returns all results from f()
return ... -- returns all received vararg parameters
return x,y,f() -- returns x, y, and all results from f()
{f()} -- creates a list with all results from f()
{...} -- creates a list with all vararg parameters
{f(), nil} -- f() is adjusted to 1 result
Any expression enclosed in parentheses always results in only one value. Thus, (f(x,y,z)) is always a single value, even if f returns several values. (The value of (f(x,y,z)) is the first value returned by f or nil if f does not return any values.)
2.5.2 – Relational Operators
The relational operators in Lua are
== ~= < > <= >=
These operators always result in false or true.
Equality (==) first compares the type of its operands. If the types are different, then the result is false. Otherwise, the values of the operands are compared. Numbers and strings are compared in the usual way. Objects (tables, userdata, threads, and functions) are compared by reference: two objects are considered equal only if they are the same object. Every time you create a new object (a table, userdata, thread, or function), this new object is different from any previously existing object.
2.5.3 – Logical Operators
The logical operators in Lua are and, or, and not. Like the control structures , all logical operators consider both false and nil as false and anything else as true.
The negation operator not always returns false or true. The conjunction operator and returns its first argument if this value is false or nil; otherwise, and returns its second argument. The disjunction operator or returns its first argument if this value is different from nil and false; otherwise, or returns its second argument. Both and and or use short-cut evaluation; that is, the second operand is evaluated only if necessary. Here are some examples:
10 or 20 --> 10
10 or error() --> 10
nil or "a" --> "a"
nil and 10 --> nil
false and error() --> false
false and nil --> false
false or nil --> nil
10 and 20 --> 20
(In this manual, --> indicates the result of the preceding expression.)
2.5.4 – Concatenation
The string concatenation operator in Lua is denoted by two dots (’..’). If both operands are strings or numbers, then they are converted to strings according to the rules mentioned in §2.2.1.
2.5.5 – The Length Operator
The length operator is denoted by the unary operator #. The length of a string is its number of bytes (that is, the usual meaning of string length when each character is one byte).
The length of a table t is defined to be any integer index n such that t[n] is not nil and t[n+1] is nil; moreover, if t[1] is nil, n can be zero. For a regular array, with non-nil values from 1 to a given n, its length is exactly that n, the index of its last value. If the array has “holes” (that is, nil values between other non-nil values), then #t can be any of the indices that directly precedes a nil value (that is, it may consider any such nil value as the end of the array).
2.5.7 – Table Constructors
Table constructors are expressions that create tables. Every time a constructor is evaluated, a new table is created. A constructor can be used to create an empty table or to create a table and initialize some of its fields. The general syntax for constructors is
tableconstructor ::= `{´ [fieldlist] `}´
fieldlist ::= field {fieldsep field} [fieldsep]
field ::= `[´ exp `]´ `=´ exp | Name `=´ exp | exp
fieldsep ::= `,´ | `;´
Each field of the form [exp1] = exp2 adds to the new table an entry with key exp1 and value exp2. A field of the form name = exp is equivalent to [“name”] = exp. Finally, fields of the form exp are equivalent to [i] = exp, where i are consecutive numerical integers, starting with 1. Fields in the other formats do not affect this counting. For example,
a = { [f(1)] = g; "x", "y"; x = 1, f(x), [30] = 23; 45 }
is equivalent to
do
local t = {}
t[f(1)] = g
t[1] = "x" -- 1st exp
t[2] = "y" -- 2nd exp
t.x = 1 -- t["x"] = 1
t[3] = f(x) -- 3rd exp
t[30] = 23
t[4] = 45 -- 4th exp
a = t
end
If the last field in the list has the form exp and the expression is a function call or a vararg expression, then all values returned by this expression enter the list consecutively. To avoid this, enclose the function call or the vararg expression in parentheses.
2.5.8 – Function Calls
A function call in Lua has the following syntax:
functioncall ::= prefixexp args
In a function call, first prefixexp and args are evaluated. If the value of prefixexp has type function, then this function is called with the given arguments. Otherwise, the prefixexp “call” metamethod is called, having as first parameter the value of prefixexp, followed by the original call arguments.
The form
functioncall ::= prefixexp `:´ Name args
can be used to call “methods”. A call v:name(args) is syntactic sugar for v.name(v,args), except that v is evaluated only once.
Arguments have the following syntax:
args ::= `(´ [explist] `)´
args ::= tableconstructor
args ::= String
All argument expressions are evaluated before the call. A call of the form f{fields} is syntactic sugar for f({fields}); that is, the argument list is a single new table. A call of the form f’string’ (or f"string" or f[[string]]) is syntactic sugar for f(‘string’); that is, the argument list is a single literal string.
A call of the form return functioncall is called a tail call. Lua implements proper tail calls (or proper tail recursion): in a tail call, the called function reuses the stack entry of the calling function. Therefore, there is no limit on the number of nested tail calls that a program can execute. However, a tail call erases any debug information about the calling function. Note that a tail call only happens with a particular syntax, where the return has one single function call as argument; this syntax makes the calling function return exactly the returns of the called function. So, none of the following examples are tail calls:
return (f(x)) -- results adjusted to 1
return 2 * f(x)
return x, f(x) -- additional results
f(x); return -- results discarded
return x or f(x) -- results adjusted to 1
2.5.9 – Function Definitions
The syntax for function definition is
function ::= function funcbody
funcbody ::= `(´ [parlist] `)´ block end
The following syntactic sugar simplifies function definitions:
stat ::= function funcname funcbody
stat ::= local function Name funcbody
funcname ::= Name {`.´ Name} [`:´ Name]
The statement
function f () body end
translates to
f = function () body end
The statement
function t.a.b.c.f () body end
translates to
t.a.b.c.f = function () body end
The statement
local function f () body end
translates to
local f; f = function () body end
A function definition is an executable expression, whose value has type function. When Lua pre-compiles a chunk, all its function bodies are pre-compiled too. Then, whenever Lua executes the function definition, the function is instantiated (or closed). This function instance (or closure) is the final value of the expression. Different instances of the same function can refer to different external local variables and can have different environment tables.
Parameters act as local variables that are initialized with the argument values:
parlist ::= namelist [`,´ `...´] | `...´
When a function is called, the list of arguments is adjusted to the length of the list of parameters, unless the function is a variadic or vararg function, which is indicated by three dots (’…’) at the end of its parameter list. A vararg function does not adjust its argument list; instead, it collects all extra arguments and supplies them to the function through a vararg expression, which is also written as three dots. The value of this expression is a list of all actual extra arguments, similar to a function with multiple results. If a vararg expression is used inside another expression or in the middle of a list of expressions, then its return list is adjusted to one element. If the expression is used as the last element of a list of expressions, then no adjustment is made (unless that last expression is enclosed in parentheses).
As an example, consider the following definitions:
function f(a, b) end
function g(a, b, ...) end
function r() return 1,2,3 end
Then, we have the following mapping from arguments to parameters and to the vararg expression:
CALL PARAMETERS
f(3) a=3, b=nil
f(3, 4) a=3, b=4
f(3, 4, 5) a=3, b=4
f(r(), 10) a=1, b=10
f(r()) a=1, b=2
g(3) a=3, b=nil, ... --> (nothing)
g(3, 4) a=3, b=4, ... --> (nothing)
g(3, 4, 5, 8) a=3, b=4, ... --> 5 8
g(5, r()) a=5, b=1, ... --> 2 3
2.6 – Visibility Rules
Lua is a lexically scoped language. The scope of variables begins at the first statement after their declaration and lasts until the end of the innermost block that includes the declaration. Consider the following example:
x = 10 -- global variable
do -- new block
local x = x -- new 'x', with value 10
print(x) --> 10
x = x+1
do -- another block
local x = x+1 -- another 'x'
print(x) --> 12
end
print(x) --> 11
end
print(x) --> 10 (the global one)
Notice that, in a declaration like local x = x, the new x being declared is not in scope yet, and so the second x refers to the outside variable.
Because of the lexical scoping rules, local variables can be freely accessed by functions defined inside their scope. A local variable used by an inner function is called an upvalue, or external local variable, inside the inner function.
Notice that each execution of a local statement defines new local variables. Consider the following example:
a = {}
local x = 20
for i=1,10 do
local y = 0
a[i] = function () y=y+1; return x+y end
end
The loop creates ten closures (that is, ten instances of the anonymous function). Each of these closures uses a different y variable, while all of them share the same x.
2.8 – Metatables
Every value in Lua can have a metatable. This metatable is an ordinary Lua table that defines the behavior of the original value under certain special operations. You can change several aspects of the behavior of operations over a value by setting specific fields in its metatable. For instance, when a non-numeric value is the operand of an addition, Lua checks for a function in the field “__add” in its metatable. If it finds one, Lua calls this function to perform the addition.
We call the keys in a metatable events and the values metamethods. In the previous example, the event is “add” and the metamethod is the function that performs the addition.
You can query the metatable of any value through the getmetatable function.
You can replace the metatable of tables through the setmetatable function. You cannot change the metatable of other types from Lua (except by using the debug library); you must use the C API for that.
Tables and full userdata have individual metatables (although multiple tables and userdata can share their metatables). Values of all other types share one single metatable per type; that is, there is one single metatable for all numbers, one for all strings, etc.
A metatable controls how an object behaves in arithmetic operations, order comparisons, concatenation, length operation, and indexing. A metatable also can define a function to be called when a userdata is garbage collected. For each of these operations Lua associates a specific key called an event. When Lua performs one of these operations over a value, it checks whether this value has a metatable with the corresponding event. If so, the value associated with that key (the metamethod) controls how Lua will perform the operation.
-
__index: The indexing access operation table[key]. This event happens when table is not a table or when key is not present in table. The metamethod is looked up in table.
Despite the name, the metamethod for this event can be either a function or a table. If it is a function, it is called with table and key as arguments, and the result of the call (adjusted to one value) is the result of the operation. If it is a table, the final result is the result of indexing this table with key. (This indexing is regular, not raw, and therefore can trigger another metamethod.) -
__newindex: The indexing assignment table[key] = value. Like the index event, this event happens when table is not a table or when key is not present in table. The metamethod is looked up in table.
Like with indexing, the metamethod for this event can be either a function or a table. If it is a function, it is called with table, key, and value as arguments. If it is a table, Lua does an indexing assignment to this table with the same key and value. (This assignment is regular, not raw, and therefore can trigger another metamethod.) Whenever there is a __newindex metamethod, Lua does not perform the primitive assignment. (If necessary, the metamethod itself can call rawset to do the assignment.) -
__call: The call operation func(args). This event happens when Lua tries to call a non-function value (that is, func is not a function). The metamethod is looked up in func. If present, the metamethod is called with func as its first argument, followed by the arguments of the original call (args). All results of the call are the result of the operation. (This is the only metamethod that allows multiple results.)
2.9 – Environments
Besides metatables, objects of types thread, function, and userdata have another table associated with them, called their environment. Like metatables, environments are regular tables and multiple objects can share the same environment.
- Threads are created sharing the environment of the creating thread.
- Userdata and C functions are created sharing the environment of the creating C function.
- Non-nested Lua functions (created by loadfile, loadstring or load) are created sharing the environment of the creating thread.
- Nested Lua functions are created sharing the environment of the creating Lua function.
Environments associated with userdata have no meaning for Lua. It is only a convenience feature for programmers to associate a table to a userdata.
Environments associated with threads are called global environments. They are used as the default environment for threads and non-nested Lua functions created by the thread and can be directly accessed by C code.
The environment associated with a C function can be directly accessed by C code. It is used as the default environment for other C functions and userdata created by the function.
Environments associated with Lua functions are used to resolve all accesses to global variables within the function. They are used as the default environment for nested Lua functions created by the function.
You can change the environment of a Lua function or the running thread by calling setfenv. You can get the environment of a Lua function or the running thread by calling getfenv. To manipulate the environment of other objects (userdata, C functions, other threads) you must use the C API.
2.10 – Garbage Collection
Lua performs automatic memory management. This means that you have to worry neither about allocating memory for new objects nor about freeing it when the objects are no longer needed. Lua manages memory automatically by running a garbage collector from time to time to collect all dead objects (that is, objects that are no longer accessible from Lua). All memory used by Lua is subject to automatic management: tables, userdata, functions, threads, strings, etc.
Lua implements an incremental mark-and-sweep collector. It uses two numbers to control its garbage-collection cycles: the garbage-collector pause and the garbage-collector step multiplier. Both use percentage points as units (so that a value of 100 means an internal value of 1).
The garbage-collector pause controls how long the collector waits before starting a new cycle. Larger values make the collector less aggressive. Values smaller than 100 mean the collector will not wait to start a new cycle. A value of 200 means that the collector waits for the total memory in use to double before starting a new cycle.
The step multiplier controls the relative speed of the collector relative to memory allocation. Larger values make the collector more aggressive but also increase the size of each incremental step. Values smaller than 100 make the collector too slow and can result in the collector never finishing a cycle. The default, 200, means that the collector runs at “twice” the speed of memory allocation.
You can change these numbers by calling lua_gc in C or collectgarbage in Lua. With these functions you can also control the collector directly (e.g., stop and restart it).
2.10.2 – Weak Tables
A weak table is a table whose elements are weak references. A weak reference is ignored by the garbage collector. In other words, if the only references to an object are weak references, then the garbage collector will collect this object.
A weak table can have weak keys, weak values, or both. A table with weak keys allows the collection of its keys, but prevents the collection of its values. A table with both weak keys and weak values allows the collection of both keys and values. In any case, if either the key or the value is collected, the whole pair is removed from the table.
The weakness of a table is controlled by the __mode field of its metatable. If the __mode field is a string containing the character ‘k’, the keys in the table are weak. If __mode contains ‘v’, the values in the table are weak.
After you use a table as a metatable, you should not change the value of its __mode field. Otherwise, the weak behavior of the tables controlled by this metatable is undefined.
2.11 – Coroutines
Lua supports coroutines, also called collaborative multithreading. A coroutine in Lua represents an independent thread of execution. Unlike threads in multithread systems, however, a coroutine only suspends its execution by explicitly calling a yield function.
You create a coroutine with a call to coroutine.create. Its sole argument is a function that is the main function of the coroutine. The create function only creates a new coroutine and returns a handle to it (an object of type thread); it does not start the coroutine execution.
When you first call coroutine.resume, passing as its first argument a thread returned by coroutine.create, the coroutine starts its execution, at the first line of its main function. Extra arguments passed to coroutine.resume are passed on to the coroutine main function. After the coroutine starts running, it runs until it terminates or yields.
A coroutine can terminate its execution in two ways: normally, when its main function returns (explicitly or implicitly, after the last instruction); and abnormally, if there is an unprotected error. In the first case, coroutine.resume returns true, plus any values returned by the coroutine main function. In case of errors, coroutine.resume returns false plus an error message.
A coroutine yields by calling coroutine.yield. When a coroutine yields, the corresponding coroutine.resume returns immediately, even if the yield happens inside nested function calls (that is, not in the main function, but in a function directly or indirectly called by the main function).
In the case of a yield, coroutine.resume also returns true, plus any values passed to coroutine.yield(加上coroutine.yield函数的参数值).
The next time you resume the same coroutine, it continues its execution from the point where it yielded, with the call to coroutine.yield returning any extra arguments passed to coroutine.resume (coroutine.yield 返回的值是传给coroutine.resume的参数值).
Like coroutine.create, the coroutine.wrap function also creates a coroutine, but instead of returning the coroutine itself, it returns a function that, when called, resumes the coroutine. Any arguments passed to this function go as extra arguments to coroutine.resume. coroutine.wrap returns all the values returned by coroutine.resume, except the first one (the boolean error code). Unlike coroutine.resume, coroutine.wrap does not catch errors; any error is propagated to the caller.
As an example, consider the following code:
function foo (a)
print("foo", a)
return coroutine.yield(2*a)
end
co = coroutine.create(function (a,b)
print("co-body", a, b)
local r = foo(a+1)
print("co-body", r)
local r, s = coroutine.yield(a+b, a-b)
print("co-body", r, s)
return b, "end"
end)
print("main", coroutine.resume(co, 1, 10))
print("main", coroutine.resume(co, "r"))
print("main", coroutine.resume(co, "x", "y"))
print("main", coroutine.resume(co, "x", "y"))
When you run it, it produces the following output:
co-body 1 10
foo 2
main true 4
co-body r
main true 11 -9
co-body x y
main true 10 end
main false cannot resume dead coroutine
3 – The Application Program Interface
3.1 – The Stack
Lua uses a virtual stack to pass values to and from C. Each element in this stack represents a Lua value (nil, number, string, etc.).
Whenever Lua calls C, the called function gets a new stack, which is independent of previous stacks and of stacks of C functions that are still active. This stack initially contains any arguments to the C function and it is where the C function pushes its results to be returned to the caller (see lua_CFunction).
For convenience, most query operations in the API do not follow a strict stack discipline. Instead, they can refer to any element in the stack by using an index: A positive index represents an absolute stack position (starting at 1); a negative index represents an offset relative to the top of the stack. More specifically, if the stack has n elements, then index 1 represents the first element (that is, the element that was pushed onto the stack first) and index n represents the last element; index -1 also represents the last element (that is, the element at the top) and index -n represents the first element. We say that an index is valid if it lies between 1 and the stack top (that is, if 1 ≤ abs(index) ≤ top).
3.2 – Stack Size
When you interact with Lua API, you are responsible for ensuring consistency. In particular, you are responsible for controlling stack overflow. You can use the function lua_checkstack to grow the stack size.
3.3 – Pseudo-Indices
Unless otherwise noted, any function that accepts valid indices can also be called with pseudo-indices, which represent some Lua values that are accessible to C code but which are not in the stack. Pseudo-indices are used to access the thread environment, the function environment, the registry, and the upvalues of a C function .
The thread environment (where global variables live) is always at pseudo-index LUA_GLOBALSINDEX. The environment of the running C function is always at pseudo-index LUA_ENVIRONINDEX.
To access and change the value of global variables, you can use regular table operations over an environment table. For instance, to access the value of a global variable, do
lua_getfield(L, LUA_GLOBALSINDEX, varname);
3.4 – C Closures
When a C function is created, it is possible to associate some values with it, thus creating a C closure; these values are called upvalues and are accessible to the function whenever it is called (see lua_pushcclosure).
Whenever a C function is called, its upvalues are located at specific pseudo-indices. These pseudo-indices are produced by the macro lua_upvalueindex. The first value associated with a function is at position lua_upvalueindex(1), and so on. Any access to lua_upvalueindex(n), where n is greater than the number of upvalues of the current function (but not greater than 256), produces an acceptable (but invalid) index.
3.5 – Registry
Lua provides a registry, a pre-defined table that can be used by any C code to store whatever Lua value it needs to store. This table is always located at pseudo-index LUA_REGISTRYINDEX. Any C library can store data into this table, but it should take care to choose keys different from those used by other libraries, to avoid collisions. Typically, you should use as key a string containing your library name or a light userdata with the address of a C object in your code.
The integer keys in the registry are used by the reference mechanism, implemented by the auxiliary library, and therefore should not be used for other purposes.
3.6 – Error Handling in C
Internally, Lua uses the C longjmp facility to handle errors. (You can also choose to use exceptions if you use C++; see file luaconf.h.) When Lua faces any error (such as memory allocation errors, type errors, syntax errors, and runtime errors) it raises an error; that is, it does a long jump. A protected environment uses setjmp to set a recover point; any error jumps to the most recent active recover point.
Most functions in the API can throw an error, for instance due to a memory allocation error. The documentation for each function indicates whether it can throw errors.
Inside a C function you can throw an error by calling lua_error.
8 – The Complete Syntax of Lua
Here is the complete syntax of Lua in extended BNF. (It does not describe operator precedences.)
chunk ::= {stat [`;´]} [laststat [`;´]]
block ::= chunk
stat ::= varlist `=´ explist |
functioncall |
do block end |
while exp do block end |
repeat block until exp |
if exp then block {elseif exp then block} [else block] end |
for Name `=´ exp `,´ exp [`,´ exp] do block end |
for namelist in explist do block end |
function funcname funcbody |
local function Name funcbody |
local namelist [`=´ explist]
laststat ::= return [explist] | break
funcname ::= Name {`.´ Name} [`:´ Name]
varlist ::= var {`,´ var}
var ::= Name | prefixexp `[´ exp `]´ | prefixexp `.´ Name
namelist ::= Name {`,´ Name}
explist ::= {exp `,´} exp
exp ::= nil | false | true | Number | String | `...´ | function |
prefixexp | tableconstructor | exp binop exp | unop exp
prefixexp ::= var | functioncall | `(´ exp `)´
functioncall ::= prefixexp args | prefixexp `:´ Name args
args ::= `(´ [explist] `)´ | tableconstructor | String
function ::= function funcbody
funcbody ::= `(´ [parlist] `)´ block end
parlist ::= namelist [`,´ `...´] | `...´
tableconstructor ::= `{´ [fieldlist] `}´
fieldlist ::= field {fieldsep field} [fieldsep]
field ::= `[´ exp `]´ `=´ exp | Name `=´ exp | exp
fieldsep ::= `,´ | `;´
binop ::= `+´ | `-´ | `*´ | `/´ | `^´ | `%´ | `..´ |
`<´ | `<=´ | `>´ | `>=´ | `==´ | `~=´ |
and | or
unop ::= `-´ | not | `#´
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