This is command line evaluator library for Lua 5.1.

To try the library, just edit Makefile to reflect your installation of Lua and then run make. This will build the library and run a simple test. For detailed installation instructions, see http://www.tecgraf.puc-rio.br/~lhf/ftp/lua/install.html

There is no manual, except the brief explanation below, but the library is simple and intuitive; see the summary below. Read also test.lua, which shows the library in action.

This code is hereby placed in the public domain. Please send comments, suggestions, and bug reports to [email protected] .

cl library: eval(s) sexp(s) unpack(s)

Command lines are series of words, which may be quoted using matching single or double quotes. Command lines are evaluated in a given environment, or in the global environment if none is given. The command is the first word in the line; a function with that name is called in the environment and is given the rest of the words in the line as arguments.

The library supports command lines in two flavors: shell command lines, which are evaluated with cl.eval, and and lisp s-expressions, which are evaluated with cl.sexp. Both functions evaluate a series of command lines contained in a string.

In shell command lines, every word becomes a string, except that words like $var are replaced by the value of var in the environment. Shell command lines can be separated by newlines or semicolons. A typical shell command line looks like this print us $me and $you and is evaluated in Lua as print("us",me,"and",you)

In s-expressions, every unquoted word is replaced by its value in the environment. A typical s-expression looks like this (print 'us' me "and" you) and is evaluated in Lua as print("us",me,"and",you) S-expressions can be nested. The results of inner expressions are merged into the argument list of the outer expression.

The evaluation returns true in case of success. In the case of s-expressions, all evaluated values are returned as well. In the case of errors, the evaluation returns false plus the location of the error plus an error message.