5.8 – The Reflexive Debug Interface

The debug library provides the functionality of the debug interface to Lua programs. You should exert care when using this library. The functions provided here should be used exclusively for debugging and similar tasks, such as profiling. Please resist the temptation to use them as a usual programming tool: They can be very slow. Moreover, setlocal and getlocal violate the privacy of local variables and therefore can compromise some otherwise secure code.

All functions in this library are provided inside a debug table.

debug.debug ()

Enters an interactive mode with the user, running each string that the user enters. Using simple commands and other debug facilities, the user can inspect global and local variables, change their values, evaluate expressions, and so on. A line containing only the word cont finishes this function, so that the caller continues its execution.

Note that commands for debug.debug are not lexically nested with any function, so they have no direct access to local variables.

debug.gethook ()

Returns the current hook settings, as three values: the current hook function, the current hook mask, and the current hook count (as set by the debug.sethook function).

debug.getinfo (function [, what])

This function returns a table with information about a function. You can give the function directly, or you can give a number as the value of function, which means the function running at level function of the call stack: Level 0 is the current function (getinfo itself); level 1 is the function that called getinfo; and so on. If function is a number larger than the number of active functions, then getinfo returns nil.

The returned table contains all the fields returned by lua_getinfo, with the string what describing which fields to fill in. The default for what is to get all information available. If present, the option `f´ adds a field named func with the function itself.

For instance, the expression debug.getinfo(1,"n").name returns the name of the current function, if a reasonable name can be found, and debug.getinfo(print) returns a table with all available information about the print function.

debug.getlocal (level, local)

This function returns the name and the value of the local variable with index local of the function at level level of the stack. (The first parameter or local variable has index 1, and so on, until the last active local variable.) The function returns nil if there is no local variable with the given index, and raises an error when called with a level out of range. (You can call debug.getinfo to check whether the level is valid.)

debug.getupvalue (func, up)

This function returns the name and the value of the upvalue with index up of the function func. The function returns nil if there is no upvalue with the given index.

debug.setlocal (level, local, value)

This function assigns the value value to the local variable with index local of the function at level level of the stack. The function returns nil if there is no local variable with the given index, and raises an error when called with a level out of range. (You can call getinfo to check whether the level is valid.)

debug.setupvalue (func, up, value)

This function assigns the value value to the upvalue with index up of the function func. The function returns nil if there is no upvalue with the given index.

debug.sethook (hook, mask [, count])

Sets the given function as a hook. The string mask and the number count describe when the hook will be called. The string mask may have the following characters, with the given meaning:

• "c" The hook is called every time Lua calls a function;
• "r" The hook is called every time Lua returns from a function;
• "l" The hook is called every time Lua enters a new line of code.

With a count different from zero, the hook is called after every count instructions.

When called without arguments, the debug.sethook function turns off the hook.

When the hook is called, its first parameter is always a string describing the event that triggered its call: "call", "return" (or "tail return"), "line", and "count". Moreover, for line events, it also gets as its second parameter the new line number. Inside a hook, you can call getinfo with level 2 to get more information about the running function (level 0 is the getinfo function, and level 1 is the hook function), unless the event is "tail return". In this case, Lua is only simulating the return, and a call to getinfo will return invalid data.

debug.traceback ([message])

Returns a string with a traceback of the call stack. An optional message string is appended at the beginning of the traceback. This function is typically used with xpcall to produce better error messages.