docs/pages/api-reference/luau.md

Luau

Built-in library for generating luau bytecode & functions.

Example usage

local luau = require("@lune/luau")

local bytecode = luau.compile("print('Hello, World!')")
local callableFn = luau.load(bytecode)

-- Additionally, we can skip the bytecode generation and load a callable function directly from the code itself.
-- local callableFn = luau.load("print('Hello, World!')")

callableFn()

Since luau bytecode is highly compressible, it may also make sense to compress it using the serde library while transmitting large amounts of it.

Functions

compile

Compiles sourcecode into Luau bytecode

An error will be thrown if the sourcecode given isn't valid Luau code.

Example usage

local luau = require("@lune/luau")

-- Compile the source to some highly optimized bytecode
local bytecode = luau.compile("print('Hello, World!')", {
	optimizationLevel = 2,
	coverageLevel = 0,
	debugLevel = 1,
})

Parameters

• source The string that will be compiled into bytecode

• compileOptions The options passed to the luau compiler that will output the bytecode

Returns

• luau bytecode

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load

Generates a function from either bytecode or sourcecode

An error will be thrown if the sourcecode given isn't valid luau code.

Example usage

local luau = require("@lune/luau")

local bytecode = luau.compile("print('Hello, World!')")
local callableFn = luau.load(bytecode, {
	debugName = "'Hello, World'"
})

callableFn()

Parameters

• source Either luau bytecode or string source code

• loadOptions The options passed to luau for loading the chunk

Returns

• luau chunk

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Types

CompileOptions

The options passed to the luau compiler while compiling bytecode.

This is a dictionary that may contain one or more of the following values:

• optimizationLevel - Sets the compiler option "optimizationLevel". Defaults to 1.
• coverageLevel - Sets the compiler option "coverageLevel". Defaults to 0.
• debugLevel - Sets the compiler option "debugLevel". Defaults to 1.

Documentation regarding what these values represent can be found here.

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LoadOptions

The options passed while loading a luau chunk from an arbitrary string, or bytecode.

This is a dictionary that may contain one or more of the following values:

• debugName - The debug name of the closure. Defaults to luau.load(...).
• environment - A custom environment to load the chunk in. Setting a custom environment will deoptimize the chunk and forcefully disable codegen. Defaults to the global environment.
• injectGlobals - Whether or not to inject globals in the custom environment. Has no effect if no custom environment is provided. Defaults to true.
• codegenEnabled - Whether or not to enable codegen. Defaults to false.

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