LuadocsThe Standard Libraries
The standard Lua libraries provide useful functions that are implemented in C through the C API. Some of these functions provide essential services to the language (e.g., type and getmetatable); others provide access to outside services (e.g., I/O); and others could be implemented in Lua itself, but that for different reasons deserve an implementation in C (e.g., table.sort).
All libraries are implemented through the official C API and are provided as separate C modules. Unless otherwise noted, these library functions do not adjust its number of arguments to its expected parameters. For instance, a function documented as foo(arg) should not be called without an argument.
The notation fail means a false value representing some kind of failure. (Currently, fail is equal to nil, but that may change in future versions. The recommendation is to always test the success of these functions with (not status), instead of (status == nil).)
Currently, Lua has the following standard libraries:
- basic library (Basic Functions);
- coroutine library (Coroutine Manipulation);
- package library (Modules);
- string manipulation (String Manipulation);
- basic UTF-8 support (UTF-8 Support);
- table manipulation (Table Manipulation);
- mathematical functions (Mathematical Functions) (sin, log, etc.);
- input and output (Input and Output Facilities);
- operating system facilities (Operating System Facilities);
- debug facilities (The Debug Library).
Except for the basic and the package libraries, each library provides all its functions as fields of a global table or as methods of its objects.
To have access to these libraries, the C host program should call the luaL_openlibs function, which opens all standard libraries. Alternatively, the host program can open them individually by using luaL_requiref to call [luaopen_base]{#pdf-luaopen_base} (for the basic library), [luaopen_package]{#pdf-luaopen_package} (for the package library), [luaopen_coroutine]{#pdf-luaopen_coroutine} (for the coroutine library), [luaopen_string]{#pdf-luaopen_string} (for the string library), [luaopen_utf8]{#pdf-luaopen_utf8} (for the UTF-8 library), [luaopen_table]{#pdf-luaopen_table} (for the table library), [luaopen_math]{#pdf-luaopen_math} (for the mathematical library), [luaopen_io]{#pdf-luaopen_io} (for the I/O library), [luaopen_os]{#pdf-luaopen_os} (for the operating system library), and [luaopen_debug]{#pdf-luaopen_debug} (for the debug library). These functions are declared in [lualib.h]{#pdf-lualib.h}.