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LUAC(1)                     General Commands Manual                    LUAC(1)



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 containing precompiled chunks
       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.  Precompiling 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.  Precompiled chunks are not necessarily smaller than the
       corresponding source.  The main goal in precompiling is faster loading.

       In the command line, you can mix text files containing Lua source and
       binary files containing precompiled chunks.  luac produces a single
       output file containing the combined bytecodes for all files given.
       Executing the combined file is equivalent to executing the given files.
       By default, the output file is named luac.out, but you can change this
       with the -o option.

       Precompiled chunks are not portable across different architectures.
       Moreover, the internal format of precompiled chunks is likely to change
       when a new version of Lua is released.  Make sure you save the source
       files of all Lua programs that you precompile.

OPTIONS
       -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.  Use -l -l for a full listing.

       -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 one of the given
              files 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.  If no files
              are given, then luac loads luac.out and tests its contents.  No
              messages are displayed if the file loads without errors.

       -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.  In particular,
              line numbers and names of local variables are lost.

       -v     show version information.

       --     stop handling options.

       -      stop handling options and process standard input.

SEE ALSO
       lua(1)
       The documentation at lua.org.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Error messages should be self explanatory.

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



                          Date: 2011/11/16 13:53:40                    LUAC(1)