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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 pro-
     gramming 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 al-
     ways 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  bi-
     nary  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.   More-
     over,  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  ma-
	    chine.  Listing bytecodes is useful to learn about Lua's virtual ma-
	    chine.   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  be-
	    cause  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 in-
	    formation 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)

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