NAME

lib/luaio.pir - Lua Input/Output Library

DESCRIPTION

The I/O library provides two different styles for file manipulation. The first one uses implicit file descriptors, that is, there are operations to set a default input file and a default output file, and all input/output operations are over those default files. The second style uses explicit file descriptors.

When using implicit file descriptors, all operations are supplied by table io. When using explicit file descriptors, the operation io.open returns a file descriptor and then all operations are supplied as methods by the file descriptor (see languages/lua/lib/luafile.pir).

The table io also provides three predefined file descriptors with their usual meanings from C: io.stdin, io.stdout, and io.stderr.

Unless otherwise stated, all I/O functions return nil on failure (plus an error message as a second result) and some value different from nil on success.

See "Lua 5.1 Reference Manual", section 5.7 "Input and Ouput Facilities", http://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#5.7.

Functions

io.close ([file])

Equivalent to file:close(). Without a file, closes the default output file.

io.flush ()

Equivalent to file:flush over the default output file.

io.input ([file])

When called with a file name, it opens the named file (in text mode), and sets its handle as the default input file. When called with a file handle, it simply sets that file handle as the default input file. When called without parameters, it returns the current default input file.

In case of errors this function raises the error, instead of returning an error code.

io.lines ([filename])

Opens the given file name in read mode and returns an iterator function that, each time it is called, returns a new line from the file. Therefore, the construction

    for line in io.lines(filename) do ... end

will iterate over all lines of the file. When the iterator function detects the end of file, it returns nil (to finish the loop) and automatically closes the file.

The call io.lines() (without a file name) is equivalent to io.input():lines(), that is, it iterates over the lines of the default input file. In this case it does not close the file when the loop ends.

io.open (filename [, mode])

This function opens a file, in the mode specified in the string mode. It returns a new file handle, or, in case of errors, nil plus an error message.

The mode string can be any of the following:

"r"

read mode (the default);

"w"

write mode;

"a"

append mode;

"r+"

update mode, all previous data is preserved;

"w+"

update mode, all previous data is erased;

"a+"

append update mode, previous data is preserved, writing is only allowed at the end of file.

The mode string may also have a b at the end, which is needed in some systems to open the file in binary mode. This string is exactly what is used in the standard C function fopen.

io.output ([file])

Similar to io.input, but operates over the default output file.

io.popen ([prog [, mode]])

Starts program prog in a separated process and returns a file handle that you can use to read data from this program (if mode is "r", the default) or to write data to this program (if mode is "w").

This function is system dependent and is not available on all platforms.

io.read (format1, ...)

Equivalent to io.input():read.

io.tmpfile ()

Returns a handle for a temporary file. This file is open in update mode and it is automatically removed when the program ends.

io.type (obj)

Checks whether obj is a valid file handle. Returns the string "file" if obj is an open file handle, "closed file" if obj is a closed file handle, and nil if obj is not a file handle.

io.write (value1, ...)

Equivalent to io.output():write.

AUTHORS

Francois Perrad.