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  1. <!DOCTYPE html>
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  29. <div id="site">
  30. <a href="https://luajit.org"><span>Lua<span id="logo">JIT</span></span></a>
  31. </div>
  32. <div id="head">
  33. <h1>Extensions</h1>
  34. </div>
  35. <div id="nav">
  36. <ul><li>
  37. <a href="luajit.html">LuaJIT</a>
  38. <ul><li>
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  74. </div>
  75. <div id="main">
  76. <p>
  77. LuaJIT is fully upwards-compatible with Lua 5.1. It supports all
  78. <a href="https://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#5"><span class="ext">&raquo;</span>&nbsp;standard Lua
  79. library functions</a> and the full set of
  80. <a href="https://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#3"><span class="ext">&raquo;</span>&nbsp;Lua/C API
  81. functions</a>.
  82. </p>
  83. <p>
  84. LuaJIT is also fully ABI-compatible to Lua 5.1 at the linker/dynamic
  85. loader level. This means you can compile a C&nbsp;module against the
  86. standard Lua headers and load the same shared library from either Lua
  87. or LuaJIT.
  88. </p>
  89. <p>
  90. LuaJIT extends the standard Lua VM with new functionality and adds
  91. several extension modules. Please note, this page is only about
  92. <em>functional</em> enhancements and not about performance enhancements,
  93. such as the optimized VM, the faster interpreter or the JIT compiler.
  94. </p>
  95. <h2 id="modules">Extensions Modules</h2>
  96. <p>
  97. LuaJIT comes with several built-in extension modules:
  98. </p>
  99. <h3 id="bit"><tt>bit.*</tt> &mdash; Bitwise operations</h3>
  100. <p>
  101. LuaJIT supports all bitwise operations as defined by
  102. <a href="https://bitop.luajit.org"><span class="ext">&raquo;</span>&nbsp;Lua BitOp</a>:
  103. </p>
  104. <pre class="code">
  105. bit.tobit bit.tohex bit.bnot bit.band bit.bor bit.bxor
  106. bit.lshift bit.rshift bit.arshift bit.rol bit.ror bit.bswap
  107. </pre>
  108. <p>
  109. This module is a LuaJIT built-in &mdash; you don't need to download or
  110. install Lua BitOp. The Lua BitOp site has full documentation for all
  111. <a href="https://bitop.luajit.org/api.html"><span class="ext">&raquo;</span>&nbsp;Lua BitOp API functions</a>.
  112. The FFI adds support for
  113. <a href="ext_ffi_semantics.html#cdata_arith">64&nbsp;bit bitwise operations</a>,
  114. using the same API functions.
  115. </p>
  116. <p>
  117. Please make sure to <tt>require</tt> the module before using any of
  118. its functions:
  119. </p>
  120. <pre class="code">
  121. local bit = require("bit")
  122. </pre>
  123. <p>
  124. An already installed Lua BitOp module is ignored by LuaJIT.
  125. This way you can use bit operations from both Lua and LuaJIT on a
  126. shared installation.
  127. </p>
  128. <h3 id="ffi"><tt>ffi.*</tt> &mdash; FFI library</h3>
  129. <p>
  130. The <a href="ext_ffi.html">FFI library</a> allows calling external
  131. C&nbsp;functions and the use of C&nbsp;data structures from pure Lua
  132. code.
  133. </p>
  134. <h3 id="jit"><tt>jit.*</tt> &mdash; JIT compiler control</h3>
  135. <p>
  136. The functions in this module
  137. <a href="ext_jit.html">control the behavior of the JIT compiler engine</a>.
  138. </p>
  139. <h3 id="c_api">C API extensions</h3>
  140. <p>
  141. LuaJIT adds some
  142. <a href="ext_c_api.html">extra functions to the Lua/C API</a>.
  143. </p>
  144. <h3 id="profiler">Profiler</h3>
  145. <p>
  146. LuaJIT has an <a href="ext_profiler.html">integrated profiler</a>.
  147. </p>
  148. <h2 id="library">Enhanced Standard Library Functions</h2>
  149. <h3 id="xpcall"><tt>xpcall(f, err [,args...])</tt> passes arguments</h3>
  150. <p>
  151. Unlike the standard implementation in Lua 5.1, <tt>xpcall()</tt>
  152. passes any arguments after the error function to the function
  153. which is called in a protected context.
  154. </p>
  155. <h3 id="load"><tt>loadfile()</tt> etc. handle UTF-8 source code</h3>
  156. <p>
  157. Non-ASCII characters are handled transparently by the Lua source code parser.
  158. This allows the use of UTF-8 characters in identifiers and strings.
  159. A UTF-8 BOM is skipped at the start of the source code.
  160. </p>
  161. <h3 id="tostring"><tt>tostring()</tt> etc. canonicalize NaN and &plusmn;Inf</h3>
  162. <p>
  163. All number-to-string conversions consistently convert non-finite numbers
  164. to the same strings on all platforms. NaN results in <tt>"nan"</tt>,
  165. positive infinity results in <tt>"inf"</tt> and negative infinity results
  166. in <tt>"-inf"</tt>.
  167. </p>
  168. <h3 id="tonumber"><tt>tonumber()</tt> etc. use builtin string to number conversion</h3>
  169. <p>
  170. All string-to-number conversions consistently convert integer and
  171. floating-point inputs in decimal, hexadecimal and binary on all platforms.
  172. <tt>strtod()</tt> is <em>not</em> used anymore, which avoids numerous
  173. problems with poor C library implementations. The builtin conversion
  174. function provides full precision according to the IEEE-754 standard, it
  175. works independently of the current locale and it supports hex floating-point
  176. numbers (e.g. <tt>0x1.5p-3</tt>).
  177. </p>
  178. <h3 id="string_dump"><tt>string.dump(f [,strip])</tt> generates portable bytecode</h3>
  179. <p>
  180. An extra argument has been added to <tt>string.dump()</tt>. If set to
  181. <tt>true</tt>, 'stripped' bytecode without debug information is
  182. generated. This speeds up later bytecode loading and reduces memory
  183. usage. See also the
  184. <a href="running.html#opt_b"><tt>-b</tt> command line option</a>.
  185. </p>
  186. <p>
  187. The generated bytecode is portable and can be loaded on any architecture
  188. that LuaJIT supports, independent of word size or endianess. However, the
  189. bytecode compatibility versions must match. Bytecode stays compatible
  190. for dot releases (x.y.0 &rarr; x.y.1), but may change with major or
  191. minor releases (2.0 &rarr; 2.1) or between any beta release. Foreign
  192. bytecode (e.g. from Lua 5.1) is incompatible and cannot be loaded.
  193. </p>
  194. <p>
  195. Note: <tt>LJ_GC64</tt> mode requires a different frame layout, which implies
  196. a different, incompatible bytecode format for all 64 bit ports. This may be
  197. rectified in the future.
  198. </p>
  199. <h3 id="table_new"><tt>table.new(narray, nhash)</tt> allocates a pre-sized table</h3>
  200. <p>
  201. An extra library function <tt>table.new()</tt> can be made available via
  202. <tt>require("table.new")</tt>. This creates a pre-sized table, just like
  203. the C API equivalent <tt>lua_createtable()</tt>. This is useful for big
  204. tables if the final table size is known and automatic table resizing is
  205. too expensive.
  206. </p>
  207. <h3 id="table_clear"><tt>table.clear(tab)</tt> clears a table</h3>
  208. <p>
  209. An extra library function <tt>table.clear()</tt> can be made available
  210. via <tt>require("table.clear")</tt>. This clears all keys and values
  211. from a table, but preserves the allocated array/hash sizes. This is
  212. useful when a table, which is linked from multiple places, needs to be
  213. cleared and/or when recycling a table for use by the same context. This
  214. avoids managing backlinks, saves an allocation and the overhead of
  215. incremental array/hash part growth.
  216. </p>
  217. <p>
  218. Please note, this function is meant for very specific situations. In most
  219. cases it's better to replace the (usually single) link with a new table
  220. and let the GC do its work.
  221. </p>
  222. <h3 id="math_random">Enhanced PRNG for <tt>math.random()</tt></h3>
  223. <p>
  224. LuaJIT uses a Tausworthe PRNG with period 2^223 to implement
  225. <tt>math.random()</tt> and <tt>math.randomseed()</tt>. The quality of
  226. the PRNG results is much superior compared to the standard Lua
  227. implementation, which uses the platform-specific ANSI rand().
  228. </p>
  229. <p>
  230. The PRNG generates the same sequences from the same seeds on all
  231. platforms and makes use of all bits in the seed argument.
  232. <tt>math.random()</tt> without arguments generates 52 pseudo-random bits
  233. for every call. The result is uniformly distributed between 0.0 and 1.0.
  234. It's correctly scaled up and rounded for <tt>math.random(n&nbsp;[,m])</tt> to
  235. preserve uniformity.
  236. </p>
  237. <p>
  238. Important: Neither this nor any other PRNG based on the simplistic
  239. <tt>math.random()</tt> API is suitable for cryptographic use.
  240. </p>
  241. <h3 id="io"><tt>io.*</tt> functions handle 64&nbsp;bit file offsets</h3>
  242. <p>
  243. The file I/O functions in the standard <tt>io.*</tt> library handle
  244. 64&nbsp;bit file offsets. In particular, this means it's possible
  245. to open files larger than 2&nbsp;Gigabytes and to reposition or obtain
  246. the current file position for offsets beyond 2&nbsp;GB
  247. (<tt>fp:seek()</tt> method).
  248. </p>
  249. <h3 id="debug_meta"><tt>debug.*</tt> functions identify metamethods</h3>
  250. <p>
  251. <tt>debug.getinfo()</tt> and <tt>lua_getinfo()</tt> also return information
  252. about invoked metamethods. The <tt>namewhat</tt> field is set to
  253. <tt>"metamethod"</tt> and the <tt>name</tt> field has the name of
  254. the corresponding metamethod (e.g. <tt>"__index"</tt>).
  255. </p>
  256. <h2 id="resumable">Fully Resumable VM</h2>
  257. <p>
  258. The LuaJIT VM is fully resumable. This means you can yield from a
  259. coroutine even across contexts, where this would not possible with
  260. the standard Lua&nbsp;5.1 VM: e.g. you can yield across <tt>pcall()</tt>
  261. and <tt>xpcall()</tt>, across iterators and across metamethods.
  262. </p>
  263. <h2 id="lua52">Extensions from Lua 5.2</h2>
  264. <p>
  265. LuaJIT supports some language and library extensions from Lua&nbsp;5.2.
  266. Features that are unlikely to break existing code are unconditionally
  267. enabled:
  268. </p>
  269. <ul>
  270. <li><tt>goto</tt> and <tt>::labels::</tt>.</li>
  271. <li>Hex escapes <tt>'\x3F'</tt> and <tt>'\*'</tt> escape in strings.</li>
  272. <li><tt>load(string|reader [, chunkname [,mode [,env]]])</tt>.</li>
  273. <li><tt>loadstring()</tt> is an alias for <tt>load()</tt>.</li>
  274. <li><tt>loadfile(filename [,mode [,env]])</tt>.</li>
  275. <li><tt>math.log(x [,base])</tt>.</li>
  276. <li><tt>string.rep(s, n [,sep])</tt>.</li>
  277. <li><tt>string.format()</tt>: <tt>%q</tt> reversible.
  278. <tt>%s</tt> checks <tt>__tostring</tt>.
  279. <tt>%a</tt> and <tt>"%A</tt> added.</li>
  280. <li>String matching pattern <tt>%g</tt> added.</li>
  281. <li><tt>io.read("*L")</tt>.</li>
  282. <li><tt>io.lines()</tt> and <tt>file:lines()</tt> process
  283. <tt>io.read()</tt> options.</li>
  284. <li><tt>os.exit(status|true|false [,close])</tt>.</li>
  285. <li><tt>package.searchpath(name, path [, sep [, rep]])</tt>.</li>
  286. <li><tt>package.loadlib(name, "*")</tt>.</li>
  287. <li><tt>debug.getinfo()</tt> returns <tt>nparams</tt> and <tt>isvararg</tt>
  288. for option <tt>"u"</tt>.</li>
  289. <li><tt>debug.getlocal()</tt> accepts function instead of level.</li>
  290. <li><tt>debug.getlocal()</tt> and <tt>debug.setlocal()</tt> accept negative
  291. indexes for varargs.</li>
  292. <li><tt>debug.getupvalue()</tt> and <tt>debug.setupvalue()</tt> handle
  293. C&nbsp;functions.</li>
  294. <li><tt>debug.upvalueid()</tt> and <tt>debug.upvaluejoin()</tt>.</li>
  295. <li>Lua/C API extensions:
  296. <tt>lua_version()</tt>
  297. <tt>lua_upvalueid()</tt>
  298. <tt>lua_upvaluejoin()</tt>
  299. <tt>lua_loadx()</tt>
  300. <tt>lua_copy()</tt>
  301. <tt>lua_tonumberx()</tt>
  302. <tt>lua_tointegerx()</tt>
  303. <tt>luaL_fileresult()</tt>
  304. <tt>luaL_execresult()</tt>
  305. <tt>luaL_loadfilex()</tt>
  306. <tt>luaL_loadbufferx()</tt>
  307. <tt>luaL_traceback()</tt>
  308. <tt>luaL_setfuncs()</tt>
  309. <tt>luaL_pushmodule()</tt>
  310. <tt>luaL_newlibtable()</tt>
  311. <tt>luaL_newlib()</tt>
  312. <tt>luaL_testudata()</tt>
  313. <tt>luaL_setmetatable()</tt>
  314. </li>
  315. <li>Command line option <tt>-E</tt>.</li>
  316. <li>Command line checks <tt>__tostring</tt> for errors.</li>
  317. </ul>
  318. <p>
  319. Other features are only enabled, if LuaJIT is built with
  320. <tt>-DLUAJIT_ENABLE_LUA52COMPAT</tt>:
  321. </p>
  322. <ul>
  323. <li><tt>goto</tt> is a keyword and not a valid variable name anymore.</li>
  324. <li><tt>break</tt> can be placed anywhere. Empty statements (<tt>;;</tt>)
  325. are allowed.</li>
  326. <li><tt>__lt</tt>, <tt>__le</tt> are invoked for mixed types.</li>
  327. <li><tt>__len</tt> for tables. <tt>rawlen()</tt> library function.</li>
  328. <li><tt>pairs()</tt> and <tt>ipairs()</tt> check for <tt>__pairs</tt> and
  329. <tt>__ipairs</tt>.</li>
  330. <li><tt>coroutine.running()</tt> returns two results.</li>
  331. <li><tt>table.pack()</tt> and <tt>table.unpack()</tt>
  332. (same as <tt>unpack()</tt>).</li>
  333. <li><tt>io.write()</tt> and <tt>file:write()</tt> return file handle
  334. instead of <tt>true</tt>.</li>
  335. <li><tt>os.execute()</tt> and <tt>pipe:close()</tt> return detailed
  336. exit status.</li>
  337. <li><tt>debug.setmetatable()</tt> returns object.</li>
  338. <li><tt>debug.getuservalue()</tt> and <tt>debug.setuservalue()</tt>.</li>
  339. <li>Remove <tt>math.mod()</tt>, <tt>string.gfind()</tt>.</li>
  340. <li><tt>package.searchers</tt>.</li>
  341. <li><tt>module()</tt> returns the module table.</li>
  342. </ul>
  343. <p>
  344. Note: this provides only partial compatibility with Lua 5.2 at the
  345. language and Lua library level. LuaJIT is API+ABI-compatible with
  346. Lua&nbsp;5.1, which prevents implementing features that would otherwise
  347. break the Lua/C API and ABI (e.g. <tt>_ENV</tt>).
  348. </p>
  349. <h2 id="lua53">Extensions from Lua 5.3</h2>
  350. <p>
  351. LuaJIT supports some extensions from Lua&nbsp;5.3:
  352. <ul>
  353. <li>Unicode escape <tt>'\u{XX...}'</tt> embeds the UTF-8 encoding in string literals.</li>
  354. <li>The argument table <tt>arg</tt> can be read (and modified) by <tt>LUA_INIT</tt> and <tt>-e</tt> chunks.</li>
  355. <li><tt>io.read()</tt> and <tt>file:read()</tt> accept formats with or without a leading <tt>*</tt>.</li>
  356. <li><tt>assert()</tt> accepts any type of error object.</li>
  357. <li><tt>table.move(a1, f, e, t [,a2])</tt>.</li>
  358. <li><tt>coroutine.isyieldable()</tt>.</li>
  359. <li>Lua/C API extensions:
  360. <tt>lua_isyieldable()</tt>
  361. </li>
  362. </ul>
  363. <h2 id="exceptions">C++ Exception Interoperability</h2>
  364. <p>
  365. LuaJIT has built-in support for interoperating with C++&nbsp;exceptions.
  366. The available range of features depends on the target platform and
  367. the toolchain used to compile LuaJIT:
  368. </p>
  369. <table class="exc">
  370. <tr class="exchead">
  371. <td class="excplatform">Platform</td>
  372. <td class="exccompiler">Compiler</td>
  373. <td class="excinterop">Interoperability</td>
  374. </tr>
  375. <tr class="odd separate">
  376. <td class="excplatform">External frame unwinding</td>
  377. <td class="exccompiler">GCC, Clang, MSVC</td>
  378. <td class="excinterop"><b style="color: #00a000;">Full</b></td>
  379. </tr>
  380. <tr class="even">
  381. <td class="excplatform">Internal frame unwinding + DWARF2</td>
  382. <td class="exccompiler">GCC, Clang</td>
  383. <td class="excinterop"><b style="color: #c06000;">Limited</b></td>
  384. </tr>
  385. <tr class="odd">
  386. <td class="excplatform">Windows 64 bit</td>
  387. <td class="exccompiler">non-MSVC</td>
  388. <td class="excinterop"><b style="color: #c06000;">Limited</b></td>
  389. </tr>
  390. <tr class="even">
  391. <td class="excplatform">Other platforms</td>
  392. <td class="exccompiler">Other compilers</td>
  393. <td class="excinterop"><b style="color: #a00000;">No</b></td>
  394. </tr>
  395. </table>
  396. <p>
  397. <b style="color: #00a000;">Full interoperability</b> means:
  398. </p>
  399. <ul>
  400. <li>C++&nbsp;exceptions can be caught on the Lua side with <tt>pcall()</tt>,
  401. <tt>lua_pcall()</tt> etc.</li>
  402. <li>C++&nbsp;exceptions will be converted to the generic Lua error
  403. <tt>"C++&nbsp;exception"</tt>, unless you use the
  404. <a href="ext_c_api.html#mode_wrapcfunc">C&nbsp;call wrapper</a> feature.</li>
  405. <li>It's safe to throw C++&nbsp;exceptions across non-protected Lua frames
  406. on the C&nbsp;stack. The contents of the C++&nbsp;exception object
  407. pass through unmodified.</li>
  408. <li>Lua errors can be caught on the C++ side with <tt>catch(...)</tt>.
  409. The corresponding Lua error message can be retrieved from the Lua stack.<br>
  410. For MSVC for Windows 64 bit this requires compilation of your C++ code
  411. with <tt>/EHa</tt>.</li>
  412. <li>Throwing Lua errors across C++ frames is safe. C++ destructors
  413. will be called.</li>
  414. </ul>
  415. <p>
  416. <b style="color: #c06000;">Limited interoperability</b> means:
  417. </p>
  418. <ul>
  419. <li>C++&nbsp;exceptions can be caught on the Lua side with <tt>pcall()</tt>,
  420. <tt>lua_pcall()</tt> etc.</li>
  421. <li>C++&nbsp;exceptions will be converted to the generic Lua error
  422. <tt>"C++&nbsp;exception"</tt>, unless you use the
  423. <a href="ext_c_api.html#mode_wrapcfunc">C&nbsp;call wrapper</a> feature.</li>
  424. <li>C++&nbsp;exceptions will be caught by non-protected Lua frames and
  425. are rethrown as a generic Lua error. The C++&nbsp;exception object will
  426. be destroyed.</li>
  427. <li>Lua errors <b>cannot</b> be caught on the C++ side.</li>
  428. <li>Throwing Lua errors across C++ frames will <b>not</b> call
  429. C++ destructors.</li>
  430. </ul>
  431. <p>
  432. <b style="color: #a00000;">No interoperability</b> means:
  433. </p>
  434. <ul>
  435. <li>It's <b>not</b> safe to throw C++&nbsp;exceptions across Lua frames.</li>
  436. <li>C++&nbsp;exceptions <b>cannot</b> be caught on the Lua side.</li>
  437. <li>Lua errors <b>cannot</b> be caught on the C++ side.</li>
  438. <li>Throwing Lua errors across C++ frames will <b>not</b> call
  439. C++ destructors.</li>
  440. </ul>
  441. <br class="flush">
  442. </div>
  443. <div id="foot">
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  445. Copyright &copy; 2005-2022
  446. <span class="noprint">
  447. &middot;
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