lua-compat-5.2

Compatibility module providing Lua-5.2-style APIs for Lua 5.1.

What is it

This is a small module that aims to make it easier to write Lua code in a Lua-5.2-style that runs on both Lua 5.1 and Lua 5.2. This does not make Lua 5.1 entirely compatible with Lua 5.2, but it brings the API closer to that of Lua 5.2.

How to use it

require("compat52")

You have to launch it like this (instead of the usual idiom of storing the return of require in a local variable) because compat52 needs to make changes to your global environment.

When run under Lua 5.2, this module does nothing.

When run under Lua 5.1, it replaces some of your standard functions and adds new ones to bring your environment closer to that of Lua 5.2.

What's implemented

• table.pack and table.unpack
• coroutine functions dealing with the main coroutine
• return code of os.execute
• bit32 (actually uses bit32 available from LuaRocks as a dependency)
• removes functions that are not available in Lua 5.2, such as setfenv and getfenv

What's not implemented

• C APIs
• _ENV
• package.loaders vs. package.searchers
• anything else I might have not bumped into yet
• functions that were only deprecated in Lua 5.2 are not removed, since they are available in Lua 5.2 when built with LUA_COMPAT_ALL.

See also

• For Lua-5.1-style APIs under Lua 5.0, see Compat-5.1
• for C support in the opposite direction (ie, loading C code using Lua-5.1-style APIs under Lua 5.2), see Twoface