NAME

       lua - Lua interpreter

SYNOPSIS

       lua [ options ] [ script [ args ] ]

DESCRIPTION

       lua  is  the  stand-alone  Lua interpreter.  It loads and executes Lua programs, 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  contain  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 standard 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 statement is to force a syntax error: adding  a  ';'  in  the  middle  of  a
       statement  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)