path: root/runtime/doc/if_lua.txt

*if_lua.txt*    Nvim


			    NVIM REFERENCE MANUAL


Lua Interface to Nvim					*lua* *Lua*

                                      Type |gO| to see the table of contents.

==============================================================================
Importing modules					*lua-require*

Nvim automatically adjusts `package.path` and `package.cpath` according to
effective 'runtimepath' value.  Adjustment happens whenever 'runtimepath' is
changed.  `package.path` is adjusted by simply appending `/lua/?.lua` and
`/lua/?/init.lua` to each directory from 'runtimepath' (`/` is actually the
first character of `package.config`).

Similarly to `package.path`, modified directories from 'runtimepath' are also
added to `package.cpath`.  In this case, instead of appending `/lua/?.lua` and
`/lua/?/init.lua` to each runtimepath, all unique `?`-containing suffixes of
the existing `package.cpath` are used.  Example:

1. Given that
   - 'runtimepath' contains `/foo/bar,/xxx;yyy/baz,/abc`;
   - initial (defined at compile-time or derived from 
     `$LUA_CPATH`/`$LUA_INIT`) `package.cpath` contains 
     `./?.so;/def/ghi/a?d/j/g.elf;/def/?.so`.
2. It finds `?`-containing suffixes `/?.so`, `/a?d/j/g.elf` and `/?.so`, in 
   order: parts of the path starting from the first path component containing 
   question mark and preceding path separator.
3. The suffix of `/def/?.so`, namely `/?.so` is not unique, as it’s the same 
   as the suffix of the first path from `package.path` (i.e. `./?.so`).  Which 
   leaves `/?.so` and `/a?d/j/g.elf`, in this order.
4. 'runtimepath' has three paths: `/foo/bar`, `/xxx;yyy/baz` and `/abc`.  The 
   second one contains semicolon which is a paths separator so it is out, 
   leaving only `/foo/bar` and `/abc`, in order.
5. The cartesian product of paths from 4. and suffixes from 3. is taken, 
   giving four variants. In each variant `/lua` path segment is inserted 
   between path and suffix, leaving

   - `/foo/bar/lua/?.so`
   - `/foo/bar/lua/a?d/j/g.elf`
   - `/abc/lua/?.so`
   - `/abc/lua/a?d/j/g.elf`

6. New paths are prepended to the original `package.cpath`.

The result will look like this:

    `/foo/bar,/xxx;yyy/baz,/abc` ('runtimepath')
    × `./?.so;/def/ghi/a?d/j/g.elf;/def/?.so` (`package.cpath`)

    = `/foo/bar/lua/?.so;/foo/bar/lua/a?d/j/g.elf;/abc/lua/?.so;/abc/lua/a?d/j/g.elf;./?.so;/def/ghi/a?d/j/g.elf;/def/?.so`

Note: to keep up with 'runtimepath' updates paths added at previous update are 
remembered and removed at the next update, while all paths derived from the 
new 'runtimepath' are prepended as described above.  This allows removing 
paths when path is removed from 'runtimepath', adding paths when they are 
added and reordering `package.path`/`package.cpath` content if 'runtimepath' 
was reordered.

Note 2: even though adjustments happens automatically Nvim does not track 
current values of `package.path` or `package.cpath`.  If you happened to 
delete some paths from there you need to reset 'runtimepath' to make them 
readded.  Just running `let &runtimepath = &runtimepath` should work.

Note 3: skipping paths from 'runtimepath' which contain semicolons applies 
both to `package.path` and `package.cpath`.  Given that there is a number of 
badly written plugins using shell which will not work with paths containing 
semicolons it is better to not have them in 'runtimepath' at all.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example of a plugin that uses lua modules		*lua-require-example*

The following example plugin adds a command `:MakeCharBlob` which transforms 
current buffer into a long `unsigned char` array.  Lua contains transformation 
function in a module `lua/charblob.lua` which is imported in 
`autoload/charblob.vim` (`require("charblob")`).  Example plugin is supposed 
to be put into any directory from 'runtimepath', e.g. `~/.config/nvim` (in 
this case `lua/charblob.lua` means `~/.config/nvim/lua/charblob.lua`).

autoload/charblob.vim: >

	function charblob#encode_buffer()
	  call setline(1, luaeval(
	  \    'require("charblob").encode(unpack(_A))',
	  \    [getline(1, '$'), &textwidth, '  ']))
	endfunction

plugin/charblob.vim: >

	if exists('g:charblob_loaded')
	  finish
	endif
	let g:charblob_loaded = 1

	command MakeCharBlob :call charblob#encode_buffer()

lua/charblob.lua: >

	local function charblob_bytes_iter(lines)
	  local init_s = {
	    next_line_idx = 1,
	    next_byte_idx = 1,
	    lines = lines,
	  }
	  local function next(s, _)
	    if lines[s.next_line_idx] == nil then
	      return nil
	    end
	    if s.next_byte_idx > #(lines[s.next_line_idx]) then
	      s.next_line_idx = s.next_line_idx + 1
	      s.next_byte_idx = 1
	      return ('\n'):byte()
	    end
	    local ret = lines[s.next_line_idx]:byte(s.next_byte_idx)
	    if ret == ('\n'):byte() then
	      ret = 0  -- See :h NL-used-for-NUL.
	    end
	    s.next_byte_idx = s.next_byte_idx + 1
	    return ret
	  end
	  return next, init_s, nil
	end

	local function charblob_encode(lines, textwidth, indent)
	  local ret = {
	    'const unsigned char blob[] = {',
	    indent,
	  }
	  for byte in charblob_bytes_iter(lines) do
	    --                .- space + number (width 3) + comma
	    if #(ret[#ret]) + 5 > textwidth then
	      ret[#ret + 1] = indent
	    else
	      ret[#ret] = ret[#ret] .. ' '
	    end
	    ret[#ret] = ret[#ret] .. (('%3u,'):format(byte))
	  end
	  ret[#ret + 1] = '};'
	  return ret
	end

	return {
	  bytes_iter = charblob_bytes_iter,
	  encode = charblob_encode,
	}

==============================================================================
Commands						*lua-commands*

							*:lua*
:[range]lua {chunk}
			Execute Lua chunk {chunk}.

Examples:
>
	:lua vim.api.nvim_command('echo "Hello, Nvim!"')
<
To see the Lua version: >
	:lua print(_VERSION)

To see the LuaJIT version: >
	:lua print(jit.version)
<

:[range]lua << {endmarker}
{script}
{endmarker}
			Execute Lua script {script}.

{endmarker} must NOT be preceded by any white space.  If {endmarker} is
omitted from after the "<<", a dot '.' must be used after {script}, like
for the |:append| and |:insert| commands.
This form of the |:lua| command is mainly useful for including Lua code
in Vim scripts.

Example:
>
	function! CurrentLineInfo()
	lua << EOF
	local linenr = vim.api.nvim_win_get_cursor(0)[1]
	local curline = vim.api.nvim_buf_get_lines(
		0, linenr, linenr + 1, false)[1]
	print(string.format("Current line [%d] has %d bytes",
		linenr, #curline))
	EOF
	endfunction

Note that the `local` variables will disappear when block finishes. This is
not the case for globals.

							*:luado*
:[range]luado {body}	Execute Lua function "function (line, linenr) {body}
			end" for each line in the [range], with the function
			argument being set to the text of each line in turn,
			without a trailing <EOL>, and the current line number.
			If the value returned by the function is a string it
			becomes the text of the line in the current turn. The
			default for [range] is the whole file: "1,$".

Examples:
>
	:luado return string.format("%s\t%d", line:reverse(), #line)

	:lua require"lpeg"
	:lua -- balanced parenthesis grammar:
	:lua bp = lpeg.P{ "(" * ((1 - lpeg.S"()") + lpeg.V(1))^0 * ")" }
	:luado if bp:match(line) then return "-->\t" .. line end
<

							*:luafile*
:[range]luafile {file}
			Execute Lua script in {file}.
			The whole argument is used as a single file name.

Examples:
>
	:luafile script.lua
	:luafile %
<

All these commands execute a Lua chunk from either the command line (:lua and
:luado) or a file (:luafile) with the given line [range]. Similarly to the Lua
interpreter, each chunk has its own scope and so only global variables are
shared between command calls. All Lua default libraries are available. In
addition, Lua "print" function has its output redirected to the Nvim message
area, with arguments separated by a white space instead of a tab.

Lua uses the "vim" module (see |lua-vim|) to issue commands to Nvim. However,
procedures that alter buffer content, open new buffers, and change cursor
position are restricted when the command is executed in the |sandbox|.


==============================================================================
The vim module						*lua-vim*

Lua interfaces Nvim through the "vim" module. Currently it has the `api`
submodule and some Nvim-specific utilities.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
vim.api.* functions

`vim.api` exposes the Nvim |API| as a table of Lua functions. All functions
are available.

For example, to use the "nvim_get_current_line()" API function, call
"vim.api.nvim_get_current_line()": >

	print(tostring(vim.api.nvim_get_current_line()))

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
vim.* utility functions

vim.stricmp(a, b)					*lua-vim.stricmp*
	Function used for case-insensitive string comparison.  Takes two 
	string arguments and returns 0, 1 or -1 if strings are equal, a is 
	greater then b or a is lesser then b respectively.

vim.type_idx						*lua-vim.type_idx*
	Type index for use in |lua-special-tbl|.  Specifying one of the 
	values from |lua-vim.types| allows typing the empty table (it is 
	unclear whether empty lua table represents empty list or empty array) 
	and forcing integral numbers to be |Float|.  See |lua-special-tbl| for 
	more details.

vim.val_idx						*lua-vim.val_idx*
	Value index for tables representing |Float|s.  A table representing 
	floating-point value 1.0 looks like this: >
		{
		  [vim.type_idx] = vim.types.float,
		  [vim.val_idx] = 1.0,
		}
<	See also |lua-vim.type_idx| and |lua-special-tbl|.

vim.types						*lua-vim.types*
	Table with possible values for |lua-vim.type_idx|.  Contains two sets 
	of key-value pairs: first maps possible values for |lua-vim.type_idx| 
	to human-readable strings, second maps human-readable type names to 
	values for |lua-vim.type_idx|.  Currently contains pairs for `float`, 
	`array` and `dictionary` types.

	Note: one must expect that values corresponding to `vim.types.float`, 
	`vim.types.array` and `vim.types.dictionary` fall under only two 
	following assumptions:
	1. Value may serve both as a key and as a value in a table.  Given the 
	   properties of lua tables this basically means “value is not `nil`”.
	2. For each value in `vim.types` table `vim.types[vim.types[value]]` 
	   is the same as `value`.
	No other restrictions are put on types, and it is not guaranteed that 
	values corresponding to `vim.types.float`, `vim.types.array` and 
	`vim.types.dictionary` will not change or that `vim.types` table will 
	only contain values for these three types.

==============================================================================
The luaeval function					*lua-luaeval* *lua-eval*
							*luaeval()*

The (dual) equivalent of "vim.eval" for passing Lua values to Nvim is
"luaeval". "luaeval" takes an expression string and an optional argument used 
for _A inside expression and returns the result of the expression. It is 
semantically equivalent in Lua to:
>
	local chunkheader = "local _A = select(1, ...) return "
	function luaeval (expstr, arg)
	    local chunk = assert(loadstring(chunkheader .. expstr, "luaeval"))
	    return chunk(arg) -- return typval
	end

Lua nils, numbers, strings, tables and booleans are converted to their
respective VimL types. An error is thrown if conversion of any other Lua types
is attempted.

The magic global "_A" contains the second argument to luaeval().

Example: >
	 :echo luaeval('_A[1] + _A[2]', [40, 2])
	 42
	 :echo luaeval('string.match(_A, "[a-z]+")', 'XYXfoo123')
	 foo

Lua tables are used as both dictionaries and lists, so it is impossible to
determine whether empty table is meant to be empty list or empty dictionary.
Additionally lua does not have integer numbers. To distinguish between these
cases there is the following agreement:

0. Empty table is empty list.
1. Table with N incrementally growing integral numbers, starting from 1 and 
   ending with N is considered to be a list.
2. Table with string keys, none of which contains NUL byte, is considered to 
   be a dictionary.
3. Table with string keys, at least one of which contains NUL byte, is also 
   considered to be a dictionary, but this time it is converted to 
   a |msgpack-special-map|.
							*lua-special-tbl*
4. Table with `vim.type_idx` key may be a dictionary, a list or floating-point 
   value:
   - `{[vim.type_idx]=vim.types.float, [vim.val_idx]=1}` is converted to 
     a floating-point 1.0. Note that by default integral lua numbers are 
     converted to |Number|s, non-integral are converted to |Float|s. This 
     variant allows integral |Float|s.
   - `{[vim.type_idx]=vim.types.dictionary}` is converted to an empty 
     dictionary, `{[vim.type_idx]=vim.types.dictionary, [42]=1, a=2}` is 
     converted to a dictionary `{'a': 42}`: non-string keys are ignored. 
     Without `vim.type_idx` key tables with keys not fitting in 1., 2. or 3. 
     are errors.
   - `{[vim.type_idx]=vim.types.list}` is converted to an empty list. As well 
     as `{[vim.type_idx]=vim.types.list, [42]=1}`: integral keys that do not 
     form a 1-step sequence from 1 to N are ignored, as well as all 
     non-integral keys.

Examples: >

	:echo luaeval('math.pi')
	:function Rand(x,y) " random uniform between x and y
	:  return luaeval('(_A.y-_A.x)*math.random()+_A.x', {'x':a:x,'y':a:y})
	:  endfunction
	:echo Rand(1,10)

Note that currently second argument to `luaeval` undergoes VimL to lua 
conversion, so changing containers in lua do not affect values in VimL. Return 
value is also always converted. When converting, |msgpack-special-dict|s are 
treated specially.

==============================================================================
 vim:tw=78:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: