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 latter loaded and executed.

       The main advantages of precompiling chunks are: faster  loading,  protecting  source  code
       from 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.

       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.

       The binary files created by luac are portable to all  architectures  with  the  same  word
       size.   This  means  that binary files created on a 32-bit platform (such as Intel) can be
       read without change in another 32-bit platform (such as Sparc), even  if  the  byte  order
       (``endianness'')  is  different.   On  the  other  hand,  binary files created on a 16-bit
       platform cannot be read in a 32-bit platform, nor vice-versa.

       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.  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 these chunks,  then  the  error
              messages  may  not  contain  the full information they usually do (line numbers and
              names of locals 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 (lua@tecgraf.puc-rio.br)

                                       2002/12/13 11:45:12                                LUAC(1)