NAME

       luac - Lua compiler

SYNOPSIS

       luac [ options ] [ filenames ]

DESCRIPTION

       luac  is the Lua compiler.  It translates programs written in the Lua programming language
       into binary files that can be later loaded and executed.

       The main advantages of precompiling chunks are: faster  loading,  protecting  source  code
       from accidental user changes, and off-line syntax checking.

       Pre-compiling  does  not  imply faster execution because in Lua chunks are always compiled
       into bytecodes before being executed.  luac simply allows those bytecodes to be saved in a
       file for later execution.

       Pre-compiled  chunks  are not necessarily smaller than the corresponding source.  The main
       goal in pre-compiling is faster loading.

       The binary files created by luac are portable only among architectures with the same  word
       size and byte order.

       luac  produces  a  single output file containing the bytecodes for all source files given.
       By default, the output file is named luac.out, but you can change this with the -o option.

       In the command line, you can mix  text  files  containing  Lua  source  and  binary  files
       containing precompiled chunks.  This is useful to combine several precompiled chunks, even
       from different (but compatible) platforms, into a single precompiled chunk.

       You can use '-' to indicate the standard input as a source file and '--' to signal the end
       of  options  (that is, all remaining arguments will be treated as files even if they start
       with '-').

       The internal format of the binary files produced by luac is likely to change  when  a  new
       version  of  Lua  is  released.   So,  save  the source files of all Lua programs that you
       precompile.

OPTIONS

       Options must be separate.

       -l     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 luac loads luac.out and lists its contents.

       -o file
              output to file, instead of the default luac.out.  (You can  use  '-'  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     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 luac loads luac.out and tests its contents.  No messages are
              displayed if the file passes the integrity test.

       -s     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.

       -v     show version information.

FILES

       luac.out       default output file

SEE ALSO

       lua(1)
       http://www.lua.org/

DIAGNOSTICS

       Error messages should be self explanatory.

AUTHORS

       L. H. de Figueiredo, R. Ierusalimschy and W. Celes

                                   $Date: 2006/01/06 16:03:34 $                           LUAC(1)