NodeLua

NodeLua is a module to expose Lua bindings to Node.JS.

This is still a work in progress, collaborators welcome.

Install

Requires Lua 5.1, will not work with 5.2

Lua and it's C libraries are required for this module to work.

npm install nodelua

var nodelua = require('nodelua');

Environment Variables

These two environment variables should really only be used when there are installation problems

• NODELUA_INCLUDE - additional directory to search for lua.h in. example: NODELUA_INCLUDE=/opt/lua
• NODELUA_FLAGS - additional library flags to use. example: NODELUA_FLAGS=-llua5.1

Installation Problems

To try and narrow down where the error is coming from try running the following commands:

$ find /usr/include /usr/local/include -name lua.h | sed s/lua.h//
/usr/include/lua5.1/
$ pkg-config --libs-only-l --silence-errors lua || pkg-config --libs-only-l --silence-errors lua5.1
-llua5.1

If instead they show nothing or an error then there are a few possible explanations:

• Lua Libraries are not installed
• This can be remedied with something like [sudo] apt-get install liblua5.1-dev
• Lua Libraries are not in an expected location /usr/include/ or /usr/local/include
• This can be solved by setting install time environment variables NODELUA_INCLUDE and NODELUA_FLAGS
• NODELUA_INCLUDE="/path/where/lua.h/is/" NODELUA_FLAGS="-llua5.1" npm install nodelua

API

NodeLua

The NodeLua module itself contains the object LuaState as well as some constants.

var lua = new nodelua.LuaState('lua')

-- STATUS

STATUS is an object that contains the constants for values returned by LuaState.status() or LuaState.statusSync().

nodelua.STATUS conatins the following constants:

• YIELD: 1
• ERRRUN: 2
• ERRSYNTAX: 3
• ERRMEM: 4
• ERRERR: 5

-- GC

GC is an object of constants used for controlling the lua garbage collector.

nodelua.GC conatins the following constants:

• STOP: 0
• RESTART: 1
• COLLECT: 2
• COUNT: 3
• COUNTB: 4
• STEP: 5
• SETPAUSE: 6
• SETSTEPMUL: 7

-- INFO

INFO is an object containing constants with information about the version of lua you are using.

nodelua.INFO contains the following constants:

• VERSION
• VERSION_NUM
• COPYRIGHT
• AUTHORS

LuaState

The LuaState is an object wrapper around a lua_State instance.

-- new LuaState(name)

When creating a new LuaState you must provide it with a name, this is to help stop conflicts between registering functions. You should provide unique names to each LuaState instance.

-- getName()

Returns the name provided when creating creating the LuaState

-- doFile(file_name, callback)

The doFile method is used to load and execute lua code stored in file_name.

lua.doFile('test.lua', function(error, ret_value){
    if(!error && ret_value){
      console.dir(ret_value);
    } else{
      console.error(error);
    }
  });

-- doFileSync(file_name)

This is the synchronous version of doFile, any value returned from the script is returned.

var ret_value = lua.doFileSync('test.lua');
console.dir(ret_value);

-- doString(lua_code, callback)

The doString method is the same as doFile except the code is loaded from lua_code rather than from a file.

lua.doString("print('Hello, Lua')", function(error, ret_value){
    if(!error && ret_value){
      console.dir(ret_value);
    } else{
      console.error(error);
    }
  });

-- doStringSync(lua_code)

This is the synchronous version of doString, any value returned from the script is returned.

var ret_value = lua.doString("return 5");
console.dir(ret_value);

-- setGlobal(name, value)

The setGlobal method is used to provide lua with the global variable name containing the value value.

lua.setGlobal('test', 'value');

-- getGlobal(name)

The getGlobal method is used to retrieve either a value set by setGlobal or a global variable in any lua code that has been run.

console.log(lua.getGlobal('test'));

-- registerFunction(name, func)

registerFunction is used to expose a javascript function to lua.

lua.registerFunction('add_them', function(a, b){
  return a + b;
});
var ret_value = lua.doStringSync('return add_them(2, 4)');
console.dir(ret_value);

-- status(callback)

status will return the current status code for lua. The result can be 0 for normal or one of the error codes in nodelua.STATUS.

lua.status(function(code){
    if(code == nodelua.STATUS.ERRSYNTAX){
      console.error('Lua Syntax Error');
    }
  });

-- statusSync()

This is the synchronous version of status

var code = lua.statusSync();
console.dir(code);

-- collectGarbage(GC_CODE, callback)

collectGarbage is used to control the lua garbage collector. GC_CODE should be one of the codes taken from nodelua.GC.

lua.collectGarbage(nodelua.GC.COLLECT, function(code){
    console.dir(code);
  });

-- collectGarbageSync(GC_CODE)

This is the synchronous version of collectGarbage.

var code = lua.collectGarbageSync(nodelua.GC.COLLECT);
console.dir(code);

-- push(value)

Push value onto the Lua stack.

lua.push(5);

-- pop(num)

Pop num items from the stack. Default is 1.

lua.pop(5);

-- getTop()

Return the number of elements on the Lua stack.

var num = lua.getTop();

-- setTop(index)

Set the top of the Lua stack to index.

lua.setTop(3);

-- replace(index)

Replaces the top stack element into the specified index

lua.replace(3);

-- close()

close should be used whenever you have finished using a LuaState. This will simply call lua_close on the lua_State for that object.

Example

See ./examples/.

var nodelua = require('nodelua');
var lua = new nodelua.LuaState('example');

lua.registerFunction('add_them', function(a, b){
  return a + b;
});

lua.doFile('some_file.lua', function(error, ret_value){
    console.dir(lua.getGlobal('some_var'));
  });

License

The MIT License (MIT) Copyright (c) 2012 Brett Langdon [email protected]

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.