luasocket/doc/index.html
2004-07-26 04:04:04 +00:00

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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta name="description" content="The LuaSocket Homepage">
<meta name="keywords" content="Lua, Library, Network, Support, Internet">
<title>LuaSocket: Network support for the Lua language </title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="reference.css" type="text/css">
</head>
<body>
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<div class=header>
<hr>
<center>
<table summary="LuaSocket logo">
<tr><td align=center><a href="http://www.lua.org">
<img width=128 height=128 border=0 alt="LuaSocket" src="luasocket.png">
</a></td></tr>
<tr><td align=center valign=top>Network support for the Lua language
</td></tr>
</table>
<p class=bar>
<a href="home.html">home</a> &middot;
<a href="home.html#download">download</a> &middot;
<a href="introduction.html">introduction</a> &middot;
<a href="reference.html">reference</a>
</p>
</center>
<hr>
</div>
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<h2 id=whatis>What is LuaSocket?</h2>
<p>
LuaSocket is a <a href="http://www.lua.org">Lua</a> extension library
that is composed by two parts: a C core that provides support for the TCP
and UDP transport layers, and a set of Lua modules that add support for
functionality commonly needed by applications that deal with the Internet.
</p>
<p>
The core support has been implemented so that it is both efficient and
simple to use. The core can be used by any Lua application once it has
been properly initialized by the interpreter running the
Lua application. The code has been tested and runs well on several Windows
and Unix platforms.
</p>
<p>
The most used modules implement the
<a href=smtp.html>SMTP</a>
(sending e-mails),
<a href=http.html>HTTP</a>
(WWW access) and
<a href=ftp.html>FTP</a>
(uploading and downloading files) client
protocols. These provide a very natural and generic interface to the e
functionality covered by the protocols.
In addition, you will find that the
<a href=mime.html>MIME</a> (common encodings),
<a href=url.html>URL</a>
(anything you could possible want to do with one) and
<a href=ltn12.html>LTN12</a>
(filters, sinks, sources and pumps) modules can be very handy.
</p>
<p>
The library is available under the same
<a href="http://www.lua.org/copyright.html">
terms and conditions</a> as the Lua language, the MIT license. The idea is
that if you can use Lua in a project, you should also be able to use
LuaSocket.
</p>
<p>
Copyright &copy; 1999-2004 Tecgraf/PUC-Rio. All rights reserved. <br>
Author: <A href="http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~diego">Diego Nehab</a>
</p>
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<h2 id=download>Download</h2>
<p>
LuaSocket version 2.0 beta2 is now available for download! It is
compatible with Lua&nbsp;5.0 and has been tested on
Windows&nbsp;XP, Linux, and Mac OS X.
</p>
<p>
The library can be downloaded in source code from the following links:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
<a href="luasocket-2.0-beta2.tar.gz">luasocket-2.0-beta2.tar.gz</a> <br>
<a href="luasocket-2.0-beta2.zip">luasocket-2.0-beta2.zip</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
Besides the full C and Lua source code for the library, the distribution
contains several examples, this user's manual and the test procedures.
</p>
<p>
I am also providing PC Win32 binaries for those that want to give
LuaSocket a quick try:
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
<a href="luasocket-2.0-beta2-win32.zip">luasocket-2.0-beta2-win32.zip</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>
The quick and dirty way to use these binaries is to unpack everything into a
directory, say <tt>c:\luasocket</tt> (include all Lua files from the
LuaSocket distrbitution in the same directory too!).
Then set <tt>LUA_INIT</tt> to load the <tt>lua.lua</tt> helper file:
</p>
<pre class=example>
c:\luasocket\&gt; set LUA_INIT=@lua.lua
</pre>
<p>
From that directory, you can then run the interpreter and it should find all
files it needs. To download this manual page from the Internet, for example,
do the following:
</p>
<pre class=example>
c:\luasocket\&gt; lua
Lua 5.0.2 Copyright (C) 1994-2004 Tecgraf, PUC-Rio
&gt; http = require"http"
&gt; print(http.request"http://www.tecgraf.puc-rio.br/luasocket/")
--&gt; this file
</pre>
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<h2 id=thanks>Special thanks</h2>
<p>
Throughout LuaSocket's history, many people gave suggestions that helped
improve it. For that, I thank the Lua community.
Special thanks go to
David Burgess, who has helped push the library to a new level of quality and
from whom I have learned a lot of stuff that doesn't show up in RFCs.
Special thanks also to Carlos Cassino, who played a big part in the
extensible design seen in the C core of LuaSocket 2.0. Recently, Mike Pall
has been helping a lot too! Thanks to you all!
</p>
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<h2 id=new>What's New</h2>
<p>
Changes in the 2.0-beta2 were mostly bug-fixes.
</p>
<ul>
<li> Fixed silly last minute bugs in HTTP/SMTP that prevented them from
running;
<li> <tt>usocket.c</tt>/<tt>wsocket.c</tt> look nicer thanks to Mike;
<li> UDP has a reasonable maximum datagram size;
<li> <tt>Receive</tt> accepts the prefix optional argument (good for
non-blocking);
<li> <b><tt>Send</tt> doesn't support multiple arguments anymore</b>;
<li> Instead, <tt>send</tt> allows the selection of the substring
to be sent (good for non-blocking);
<li> Fixed bug that caused select return tables not to be associative
on windows;
<li> Should compiles with g++;
<li> New sample unix domain support;
<li> New sample LPD support;
<li> Comprehensive error messages;
<li> New <tt>getstats</tt> and <tt>setstats</tt> methods to help throttling;
<li> <tt>Listen</tt> defaults to 32 backlog;
<li> SMTP/FTP/HTTP fail gracefully;
<li> <tt>accept</tt>/<tt>connect</tt>/<tt>select</tt> interrupt safe
<li> Fixed bug that didn't set accepted sockets as non-blocking
<li> <b>New timming functions <tt>sleep</tt> and <tt>gettime</tt> have
higher resolution and no wrap around problems</b>;
<li> Bug fixes in the manual;
<li> Fixed bug of missing cast in <tt>getfd</tt>.
</ul>
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<h3 id=incompatible>Incompatibilities with previous versions</h3>
<ul>
<li> New <tt>send</tt> inteface doesn't send multiple arguments anymore;
<li> <tt>Time</tt> is replaced by <tt>gettime</tt> with advantages.
</ul>
<!-- old ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<h2 id=old>Old Versions</h2>
<p>
All previous versions of the LuaSocket library can be downloaded
<a href="http://www.tecgraf.puc-rio.br/luasocket/old">here</a>. Although
these versions are no longer supported, they are still available for
those that have compatibility issues.
</p>
<!-- footer +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -->
<div class=footer>
<hr>
<center>
<p class=bar>
<a href="home.html#down">download</a> &middot;
<a href="introduction.html">introduction</a> &middot;
<a href="reference.html">reference</a>
</p>
<p>
<small>
Last modified by Diego Nehab on <br>
Thu Jun 17 02:47:14 EDT 2004
</small>
</p>
</center>
</div>
</body>
</html>