# What's changed?
### New Type Solver
- Unification of two fresh types no longer binds them together.
- Replaced uses of raw `emplace` with `emplaceType` to catch cyclic
bound types when they are created.
- `SetIndexerConstraint` is blocked until the indexer result type is not
blocked.
- Fix a case where a blocked type got past the constraint solver.
- Searching for free types should no longer traverse into `ClassType`s.
- Fix a corner case that could result in the non-testable type `~{}`.
- Fix incorrect flagging when `any` was a parameter of some checked
function in nonstrict type checker.
- `IterableConstraint` now consider tables without `__iter` to be
iterables.
### Native Code Generation
- Improve register type info lookup by program counter.
- Generate type information for locals and upvalues
---
### Internal Contributors
Co-authored-by: Aaron Weiss <aaronweiss@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Alexander McCord <amccord@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: James McNellis <jmcnellis@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vighnesh Vijay <vvijay@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Aaron Weiss <aaronweiss@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vighnesh <vvijay@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Aviral Goel <agoel@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: David Cope <dcope@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Lily Brown <lbrown@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
# What's changed?
* Luau allocation scheme was changed to handle allocations in 513-1024
byte range internally without falling back to global allocator
* coroutine/thread creation no longer requires any global allocations,
making it up to 15% faster (vs libc malloc)
* table construction for 17-32 keys or 33-64 array elements is up to 30%
faster (vs libc malloc)
### New Type Solver
* Cyclic unary negation type families are reduced to `number` when
possible
* Class types are skipped when searching for free types in unifier to
improve performance
* Fixed issues with table type inference when metatables are present
* Improved inference of iteration loop types
* Fixed an issue with bidirectional inference of method calls
* Type simplification will now preserve error suppression markers
### Native Code Generation
* Fixed TAG_VECTOR skip optimization to not break instruction use counts
(broken optimization wasn't included in 614)
* Fixed missing side-effect when optimizing generic loop preparation
instruction
---
### Internal Contributors
Co-authored-by: Aaron Weiss <aaronweiss@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Lily Brown <lbrown@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Aaron Weiss <aaronweiss@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Alexander McCord <amccord@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vighnesh <vvijay@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Aviral Goel <agoel@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: David Cope <dcope@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Lily Brown <lbrown@roblox.com>
### What's changed?
* Syntax for [read-only and write-only
properties](https://github.com/luau-lang/rfcs/pull/15) is now parsed,
but is not yet supported in typechecking
### New Type Solver
* `keyof` and `rawkeyof` type operators have been updated to match final
text of the [RFC](https://github.com/luau-lang/rfcs/pull/16)
* Fixed issues with cyclic type families that were generated for mutable
loop variables
### Native Code Generation
* Fixed inference for number / vector operation that caused an
unnecessary VM assist
---
### Internal Contributors
Co-authored-by: Aaron Weiss <aaronweiss@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Lily Brown <lbrown@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
# Old Solver:
- Fix a bug in the old solver where a user could use the keyword
`typeof` as the name of a type alias.
- Fix stringification of scientific notation to omit a trailing decimal
place when not followed by a digit e.g. `1.e+20` -> `1e+20`
# New Solver
- Continuing work on the New non-strict mode
- Introduce `keyof` and `rawkeyof` type function for acquiring the type
of all keys in a table or class
(https://github.com/luau-lang/rfcs/pull/16)
---
Co-authored-by: Aaron Weiss <aaronweiss@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Alexander McCord <amccord@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Aviral Goel <agoel@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Lily Brown <lbrown@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vighnesh Vijay <vvijay@roblox.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Aaron Weiss <aaronweiss@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Alexander McCord <amccord@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Aviral Goel <agoel@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: David Cope <dcope@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Lily Brown <lbrown@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
This change adds support for tagged lightuserdata and optional custom
typenames for lightuserdata.
Background: Lightuserdata is an efficient representation for many kinds
of unmanaged handles and resources in a game engine. However, currently
the VM only supports one kind of lightuserdata, which makes it
problematic in practice. For example, it's not possible to distinguish
between different kinds of lightuserdata in Lua bindings, which can lead
to unsafe practices and even crashes when a wrong kind of lightuserdata
is passed to a binding function. Tagged lightuserdata work similarly to
tagged userdata, i.e. they allow checking the tag quickly using
lua_tolightuserdatatagged (or lua_lightuserdatatag).
The tag is stored in the 'extra' field of TValue so it will add no cost
to the (untagged) lightuserdata type.
Alternatives would be to use full userdata values or use bitpacking to
embed type information into lightuserdata on application level.
Unfortunately these options are not that great in practice: full
userdata have major performance implications and bitpacking fails in
cases where full 64 bits are already used (e.g. pointers or 64-bit
hashes).
Lightuserdata names are not strictly necessary but they are rather
convenient when debugging Lua code. More precise error messages and
tostring returning more specific typename are useful to have in practice
(e.g. "resource" or "entity" instead of the more generic "userdata").
Impl note: I did not add support for renaming tags in
lua_setlightuserdataname as I'm not sure if it's possible to free fixed
strings. If it's simple enough, maybe we should allow renaming (although
I can't think of a specific need for it)?
---------
Co-authored-by: Petri Häkkinen <petrih@rmd.remedy.fi>
### What's Changed
- Improve readability of unions and intersections by limiting the number
of elements of those types that can be presented on a single line (gated
under `FFlag::LuauToStringSimpleCompositeTypesSingleLine`)
- Adds a new option to the compiler `--record-stats` to record and
output compilation statistics
- `if...then...else` expressions are now optimized into `AND/OR` form
when possible.
### VM
- Add a new `buffer` type to Luau based on the [buffer
RFC](https://github.com/Roblox/luau/pull/739) and additional C API
functions to work with it; this release does not include the library.
- Internal C API to work with string buffers has been updated to align
with Lua version more closely
### Native Codegen
- Added support for new X64 instruction (rev) and new A64 instruction
(bswap) in the assembler
- Simplified the way numerical loop condition is translated to IR
### New Type Solver
- Operator inference now handled by type families
- Created a new system called `Type Paths` to explain why subtyping
tests fail in order to improve the quality of error messages.
- Systematic changes to implement Data Flow analysis in the new solver
(`Breadcrumb` removed and replaced with `RefinementKey`)
---
Co-authored-by: Aaron Weiss <aaronweiss@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Alexander McCord <amccord@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Aviral Goel <agoel@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Lily Brown <lbrown@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vighnesh Vijay <vvijay@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Arseny Kapoulkine <arseny.kapoulkine@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Lily Brown <lbrown@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Aaron Weiss <aaronweiss@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Alexander McCord <amccord@roblox.com>
Co-authored-by: Aviral Goel <agoel@roblox.com>
Type checker/autocomplete:
* `Luau::autocomplete` no longer performs typechecking internally, make
sure to run `Frontend::check` before performing autocomplete requests
* Autocomplete string suggestions without "" are now only suggested
inside the ""
* Autocomplete suggestions now include `function (anonymous autofilled)`
key with a full suggestion for the function expression (with arguments
included) stored in `AutocompleteEntry::insertText`
* `AutocompleteEntry::indexedWithSelf` is provided for function call
suggestions made with `:`
* Cyclic modules now see each other type exports as `any` to prevent
memory use-after-free (similar to module return type)
Runtime:
* Updated inline/loop unroll cost model to better handle assignments
(Fixes https://github.com/Roblox/luau/issues/978)
* `math.noise` speed was improved by ~30%
* `table.concat` speed was improved by ~5-7%
* `tonumber` and `tostring` now have fastcall paths that execute ~1.5x
and ~2.5x faster respectively (fixes#777)
* Fixed crash in `luaL_typename` when index refers to a non-existing
value
* Fixed potential out of memory scenario when using `string.sub` or
`string.char` in a loop
* Fixed behavior of some fastcall builtins when called without arguments
under -O2 to match original functions
* Support for native code execution in VM is now enabled by default
(note: native code still has to be generated explicitly)
* `Codegen::compile` now accepts `CodeGen_OnlyNativeModules` flag. When
set, only modules that have a `--!native` hot-comment at the top will be
compiled to native code
In our new typechecker:
* Generic type packs are no longer considered to be variadic during
unification
* Timeout and cancellation now works in new solver
* Fixed false positive errors around 'table' and 'function' type
refinements
* Table literals now use covariant unification rules. This is sound
since literal has no type specified and has no aliases
* Fixed issues with blocked types escaping the constraint solver
* Fixed more places where error messages that should've been suppressed
were still reported
* Fixed errors when iterating over a top table type
In our native code generation (jit):
* 'DebugLuauAbortingChecks' flag is now supported on A64
* LOP_NEWCLOSURE has been translated to IR
* Added support for async typechecking cancellation using a token passed
through frontend options
* Added luaC_enumheap for building debug tools that need a graph of Luau
heap
In our new typechecker:
* Errors or now suppressed when checking property lookup of
error-suppressing unions
In our native code generation (jit):
* Fixed unhandled value type in NOT_ANY lowering
* Fast-call tag checks will exit to VM on failure, instead of relying on
a native fallback
* Added vector type to the type information
* Eliminated redundant direct jumps across dead blocks
* Debugger APIs are now disabled for call frames executing natively
* Implemented support for unwind registration on macOS 14
* Fixed indexing table intersections using `x["prop"]` syntax:
https://github.com/Roblox/luau/pull/971
* Add console output codepage for Windows:
https://github.com/Roblox/luau/pull/967
* Added `Frontend::parse` for a fast source graph preparation
* luau_load should check GC
* Work toward a type-diff system for nicer error messages
New Solver
* Correctly suppress errors in more cases
* Further improvements to typechecking of function calls and return
statements
* Crash fixes
* Propagate refinements drawn from the condition of a while loop into
the loop body
JIT
* Fix accidental bailout for math.frexp/modf/sign in A64
* Work toward bringing type annotation info in
* Do not propagate Luau IR constants of wrong type into load
instructions
* CHECK_SAFEENV exits to VM on failure
* Implement error handling in A64 reg allocator
* Inline the string.len builtin
* Do not enter native code of a function if arguments don’t match
---------
Co-authored-by: Arseny Kapoulkine <arseny.kapoulkine@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
* Fixed gcc warning about uninitialized `std::optional`
* Fixed inlining of functions when they are used to compute their own
arguments
In the new type solver:
* Type families that are not part of a function signature cannot be
resolved at instantiation time and will now produce an error. This will
be relaxed in the future when we get constraint clauses on function
signatures (internally)
* `never` type is now comparable
* Improved typechecking of `for..in` statements
* Fixed checks for number type in `Add` type family
* Performance was improved, with particularly large gains on large
projects
And in native code generation (jit):
* We eliminated the call instruction overhead when native code support
is enabled in the VM
* Small optimizations to arm64 lowering
* Reworked LOP_GETIMPORT handling to reduce assembly code size
* Fixed non-deterministic binary output
* Fixed bad code generation caused by incorrect SSA to VM register links
invalidation
---------
Co-authored-by: Arseny Kapoulkine <arseny.kapoulkine@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Andy Friesen <afriesen@roblox.com>
Lots of things going on this week:
* Fix a crash that could occur in the presence of a cyclic union. We
shouldn't be creating cyclic unions, but we shouldn't be crashing when
they arise either.
* Minor cleanup of `luau_precall`
* Internal change to make L->top handling slightly more uniform
* Optimize SETGLOBAL & GETGLOBAL fallback C functions.
* https://github.com/Roblox/luau/pull/929
* The syntax to the `luau-reduce` commandline tool has changed. It now
accepts a script, a command to execute, and an error to search for. It
no longer automatically passes the script to the command which makes it
a lot more flexible. Also be warned that it edits the script it is
passed **in place**. Do not point it at something that is not in source
control!
New solver
* Switch to a greedier but more fallible algorithm for simplifying union
and intersection types that are created as part of refinement
calculation. This has much better and more predictable performance.
* Fix a constraint cycle in recursive function calls.
* Much improved inference of binary addition. Functions like `function
add(x, y) return x + y end` can now be inferred without annotations. We
also accurately typecheck calls to functions like this.
* Many small bugfixes surrounding things like table indexers
* Add support for indexers on class types. This was previously added to
the old solver; we now add it to the new one for feature parity.
JIT
* https://github.com/Roblox/luau/pull/931
* Fuse key.value and key.tt loads for CEHCK_SLOT_MATCH in A64
* Implement remaining aliases of BFM for A64
* Implement new callinfo flag for A64
* Add instruction simplification for int->num->int conversion chains
* Don't even load execdata for X64 calls
* Treat opcode fallbacks the same as manually written fallbacks
---------
Co-authored-by: Arseny Kapoulkine <arseny.kapoulkine@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Vyacheslav Egorov <vegorov@roblox.com>
* Reoptimized math.min/max/bit32 builtins assuming at least 2 arguments are used (1-2% lift on some benchmarks)
* Type errors that mention function types no longer have redundant parenthesis around return type
* Luau REPL now supports --compile=remarks which displays the source code with optimization remarks embedded as comments
* Builtin calls are slightly faster when called with 1-2 arguments (~1% improvement in some benchmarks)
- Fix rare type checking bugs with invalid generic types escaping the
module scope
- Fix type checking of variadic type packs in certain cases
- Implement type normalization, which resolves a large set of various
issues with unions/intersections in type checker
- Improve parse errors for trailing commas in function calls and type
lists
- Reduce profiling skew when using --profile with very high frequencies
- Improve performance of `lua_getinfo` (`debug.info`, `debug.traceback`
and profiling overhead are now 20% faster/smaller)
- Improve performance of polymorphic comparisons (1-2% lift on some
benchmarks)
- Improve performance of closure creation (1-2% lift on some benchmarks)
- Improve string comparison performance (4% lift on string sorting)
- Type aliases can no longer override primitive types; attempts to do
that will result in a type error
- Fix misleading type error messages for mismatches in expression list
length during assignment
- Fix incorrect type name display in certain cases
- setmetatable/getmetatable are now ~2x faster
- tools/perfstat.py can be used to display statistics about profiles
captured via --profile switch
- Improve type error messages for argument count mismatch in certain
cases
- Fix type checking variadic returns when the type is incompatible which
type checked in certain cases
- Reduce size of upvalue objects by 8 bytes on 64-bit platforms
- Reduce I$ footprint of interpreter by 1.5KB
- Reduce GC pause during atomic stage for programs with a lot of threads
- Remove support for bytecode v2
- Fix DeprecatedGlobal warning text in cases when the global is deprecated without a suggested alternative
- Fix an off-by-one error in type error text for incorrect use of string.format
- Reduce stack consumption further during parsing, hopefully eliminating stack overflows during parsing/compilation for good
- Mark interpolated string support as experimental (requires --fflags=LuauInterpolatedStringBaseSupport to enable)
- Simplify garbage collection treatment of upvalues, reducing cache misses during sweeping stage and reducing the cost of upvalue assignment (SETUPVAL); supersedes #643
- Simplify garbage collection treatment of sleeping threads
- Simplify sweeping of alive threads, reducing cache misses during sweeping stage
- Simplify management of string buffers, removing redundant linked list operations
- TableOperations lint now includes a warning for table.create(N, {}) (which is likely a mistake since the table is shared by all entries)
- Type checker now type checks #v when v is a union
- Parser now rejects sources that consists of a single unfinished long comment
- Work around significant MSVC 2022 performance regression, bringing it more or less in line with MSVC 2019
- Compiler now predicts array size for newly allocated tables when the table is filled in a short loop
- Small improvements in compilation throughput (~2% faster)
- Implement paged sweeper for GC which improves sweep throughput 2-3x and reduces memory consumption by 8 bytes per object (once it is stabilized we will see additional 8 bytes per object of savings)
- Improve Repl Tab completion
- Repl now supports -i (interactive mode to run code in context of a script's environment) and -On (to control optimization flags)
- Rework transaction log used for type checking which should result in more robust type checking internals with fewer bugs
- Reduce the amount of memory consumed by type checker on large module graphs
- Type checker now errors on attempts to change the type of imported module fields
- The return type of newproxy is now any (fixes#296)
- Implement new number printing algorithm (Schubfach) which makes tostring() produce precise (round-trippable) and short decimal output up to 10x faster
- Fix lua_Debug::linedefined to point to the line with the function definition instead of the first statement (fixes#265)
- Fix minor bugs in Tab completion in Repl
- Repl now saves/restores command history in ~/.luau_history
This doesn't contain all changes for 507 yet but we might want to do the
Luau 0.507 release a bit earlier to end the year sooner.
Changes:
- Type ascription (::) now permits casts between related types in both directions, allowing to refine or loosen the type (RFC #56)
- Fix type definition for tonumber to return number? since the input string isn't guaranteed to contain a valid number
- Fix type refinements for field access via []
- Many stability fixes for type checker
- Provide extra information in error messages for type mismatches in more cases
- Improve performance of type checking for large unions when union members are string literals
- Add coverage reporting support to Repl (--coverage command line argument) and lua_getcoverage C API
- Work around code signing issues during Makefile builds on macOS
- Improve performance of truthiness checks in some cases, particularly on Apple M1, resulting in 10-25% perf gains on qsort benchmark depending on the CPU/compiler
- Fix support for little-endian systems; IBM s390x here we go!
