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LUA(1)			     General Commands Manual			  LUA(1)

NAME
     lua - Lua interpreter

SYNOPSIS
     lua [ options ] [ script [ args ] ]

DESCRIPTION
     lua  is  the  stand-alone	Lua interpreter.  It loads and executes Lua pro-
     grams, either in textual source form or in precompiled binary form.   (Pre-
     compiled  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  syn-
     tax error: adding a ';' in the middle of a statement is a sure way of forc-
     ing  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 expres-
     sions  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 vari-
     able to a string of your choice.  You can do that after calling the  inter-
     preter 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 interac-
	    tively, 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)

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