1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="Copyright" content="Copyright (C) 2005-2020">
<meta name="Language" content="en">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="bluequad.css" media="screen">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="bluequad-print.css" media="print">
<style type="text/css">
dd { margin-left: 1.5em; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="site">
<a href="https://luajit.org"><span>Lua<span id="logo">JIT</span></span></a>
</div>
<div id="head">
<h1>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</h1>
</div>
<div id="nav">
<ul><li>
<a href="luajit.html">LuaJIT</a>
<ul><li>
<a href="https://luajit.org/download.html">Download <span class="ext">»</span></a>
</li><li>
<a href="install.html">Installation</a>
</li><li>
<a href="running.html">Running</a>
</li></ul>
</li><li>
<a href="extensions.html">Extensions</a>
<ul><li>
<a href="ext_ffi.html">FFI Library</a>
<ul><li>
<a href="ext_ffi_tutorial.html">FFI Tutorial</a>
</li><li>
<a href="ext_ffi_api.html">ffi.* API</a>
</li><li>
<a href="ext_ffi_semantics.html">FFI Semantics</a>
</li></ul>
</li><li>
<a href="ext_jit.html">jit.* Library</a>
</li><li>
<a href="ext_c_api.html">Lua/C API</a>
</li></ul>
</li><li>
<a href="status.html">Status</a>
</li><li>
<a class="current" href="faq.html">FAQ</a>
</li><li>
<a href="http://wiki.luajit.org/">Wiki <span class="ext">»</span></a>
</li><li>
<a href="https://luajit.org/list.html">Mailing List <span class="ext">»</span></a>
</li></ul>
</div>
<div id="main">
<dl id="info">
<dt>Q: Where can I learn more about LuaJIT and Lua?</dt>
<dd>
<ul style="padding: 0;">
<li>The <a href="https://luajit.org/list.html">LuaJIT mailing list</a> focuses on topics
related to LuaJIT.</li>
<li>The <a href="http://wiki.luajit.org/"><span class="ext">»</span> LuaJIT wiki</a> gathers community
resources about LuaJIT.</li>
<li>News about Lua itself can be found at the
<a href="https://www.lua.org/lua-l.html">Lua mailing list</a>.
The mailing list archives are worth checking out for older postings
about LuaJIT.</li>
<li>The <a href="https://lua.org">main Lua.org site</a> has complete
<a href="https://www.lua.org/docs.html">documentation</a> of the language
and links to books and papers about Lua.</li>
<li>The community-managed <a href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/"><span class="ext">»</span> Lua Wiki</a>
has information about diverse topics.</li>
</ul>
</dl>
<dl id="tech">
<dt>Q: Where can I learn more about the compiler technology used by LuaJIT?</dt>
<dd>
I'm planning to write more documentation about the internals of LuaJIT.
In the meantime, please use the following Google Scholar searches
to find relevant papers:<br>
Search for: <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Trace+Compiler">Trace Compiler</a><br>
Search for: <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=JIT+Compiler">JIT Compiler</a><br>
Search for: <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Dynamic+Language+Optimizations">Dynamic Language Optimizations</a><br>
Search for: <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=SSA+Form">SSA Form</a><br>
Search for: <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Linear+Scan+Register+Allocation">Linear Scan Register Allocation</a><br>
Here is a list of the <a href="http://lua-users.org/lists/lua-l/2009-11/msg00089.html"><span class="ext">»</span> innovative features in LuaJIT</a>.<br>
And, you know, reading the source is of course the only way to enlightenment. :-)
</dd>
</dl>
<dl id="arg">
<dt>Q: Why do I get this error: "attempt to index global 'arg' (a nil value)"?<br>
Q: My vararg functions fail after switching to LuaJIT!</dt>
<dd>LuaJIT is compatible to the Lua 5.1 language standard. It doesn't
support the implicit <tt>arg</tt> parameter for old-style vararg
functions from Lua 5.0.<br>Please convert your code to the
<a href="https://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#2.5.9">Lua 5.1
vararg syntax</a>.</dd>
</dl>
<dl id="x87">
<dt>Q: Why do I get this error: "bad FPU precision"?<br>
<dt>Q: I get weird behavior after initializing Direct3D.<br>
<dt>Q: Some FPU operations crash after I load a Delphi DLL.<br>
</dt>
<dd>
DirectX/Direct3D (up to version 9) sets the x87 FPU to single-precision
mode by default. This violates the Windows ABI and interferes with the
operation of many programs — LuaJIT is affected, too. Please make
sure you always use the <tt>D3DCREATE_FPU_PRESERVE</tt> flag when
initializing Direct3D.<br>
Direct3D version 10 or higher do not show this behavior anymore.
Consider testing your application with older versions, too.<br>
Similarly, the Borland/Delphi runtime modifies the FPU control word and
enables FP exceptions. Of course this violates the Windows ABI, too.
Please check the Delphi docs for the Set8087CW method.
</dl>
<dl id="ctrlc">
<dt>Q: Sometimes Ctrl-C fails to stop my Lua program. Why?</dt>
<dd>The interrupt signal handler sets a Lua debug hook. But this is
currently ignored by compiled code (this will eventually be fixed). If
your program is running in a tight loop and never falls back to the
interpreter, the debug hook never runs and can't throw the
"interrupted!" error.<br> In the meantime you have to press Ctrl-C
twice to get stop your program. That's similar to when it's stuck
running inside a C function under the Lua interpreter.</dd>
</dl>
<dl id="sandbox">
<dt>Q: Can Lua code be safely sandboxed?</dt>
<dd>
Maybe for an extremly restricted subset of Lua and if you relentlessly
scrutinize every single interface function you offer to the untrusted code.<br>
Although Lua provides some sandboxing functionality (<tt>setfenv()</tt>, hooks),
it's very hard to get this right even for the Lua core libraries. Of course,
you'll need to inspect any extension library, too. And there are libraries
that are inherently unsafe, e.g. the <a href="ext_ffi.html">FFI library</a>.<br>
Relatedly, <b>loading untrusted bytecode is not safe!</b> It's trivial
to crash the Lua or LuaJIT VM with maliciously crafted bytecode. This is
well known and there's no bytecode verification on purpose, so please
don't report a bug about it. Check the <tt>mode</tt> parameter for the
<tt>load*()</tt> functions to disable loading of bytecode.<br>
In general, the only promising approach is to sandbox Lua code at the
process level and not the VM level.<br>
More reading material at the <a href="http://lua-users.org/wiki/SandBoxes"><span class="ext">»</span> Lua Wiki</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_(computer_security)">Wikipedia</a>.
</dd>
</dl>
<dl id="patches">
<dt>Q: Why doesn't my favorite power-patch for Lua apply against LuaJIT?</dt>
<dd>Because it's a completely redesigned VM and has very little code
in common with Lua anymore. Also, if the patch introduces changes to
the Lua semantics, these would need to be reflected everywhere in the
VM, from the interpreter up to all stages of the compiler.<br> Please
use only standard Lua language constructs. For many common needs you
can use source transformations or use wrapper or proxy functions.
The compiler will happily optimize away such indirections.</dd>
</dl>
<dl id="arch">
<dt>Q: Lua runs everywhere. Why doesn't LuaJIT support my CPU?</dt>
<dd>Because it's a compiler — it needs to generate native
machine code. This means the code generator must be ported to each
architecture. And the fast interpreter is written in assembler and
must be ported, too. This is quite an undertaking.<br>
The <a href="install.html">install documentation</a> shows the supported
architectures. Other architectures will follow based on sufficient user
demand and/or sponsoring.</dd>
</dl>
<dl id="when">
<dt>Q: When will feature X be added? When will the next version be released?</dt>
<dd>When it's ready.<br>
C'mon, it's open source — I'm doing it on my own time and you're
getting it for free. You can either contribute a patch or sponsor
the development of certain features, if they are important to you.
</dd>
</dl>
<br class="flush">
</div>
<div id="foot">
<hr class="hide">
Copyright © 2005-2020
<span class="noprint">
·
<a href="contact.html">Contact</a>
</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>
|
