I'm using Lua in Scite on Windows, but hopefully this is a general Lua question.
Let's say I want to write a temporary string content to a temporary file in Lua - which I want to be eventually read by another program, - and I tried using io.tmpfile():
mytmpfile = assert( io.tmpfile() )
mytmpfile:write( MYTMPTEXT )
mytmpfile:seek("set", 0) -- back to start
print("mytmpfile" .. mytmpfile .. "<<<")
mytmpfile:close()
I like io.tmpfile() because it is noted in https://www.lua.org/pil/21.3.html :
The tmpfile function returns a handle for a temporary file, open in read/write mode. That file is automatically removed (deleted) when your program ends.
However, when I try to print mytmpfile, I get:
C:\Users\ME/sciteLuaFunctions.lua:956: attempt to concatenate a FILE* value (global 'mytmpfile')
>Lua: error occurred while processing command
I got the explanation for that here Re: path for io.tmpfile() ?:
how do I get the path used to generate the temp file created by io.tmpfile()
You can't. The whole point of tmpfile is to give you a file handle without
giving you the file name to avoid race conditions.
And indeed, on some OSes, the file has no name.
So, it will not be possible for me to use the filename of the tmpfile in a command line that should be ran by the OS, as in:
f = io.popen("python myprog.py " .. mytmpfile)
So my questions are:
Would it be somehow possible to specify this tmpfile file handle as the input argument for the externally ran program/script, say in io.popen - instead of using the (non-existing) tmpfile filename?
If above is not possible, what is the next best option (in terms of not having to maintain it, i.e. not having to remember to delete the file) for opening a temporary file in Lua?
You can get a temp filename with os.tmpname.
local n = os.tmpname()
local f = io.open(n, 'w+b')
f:write(....)
f:close()
os.remove(n)
If your purpose is sending some data to a python script, you can also use 'w' mode in popen.
--lua
local f = io.popen(prog, 'w')
f:write(....)
#python
import sys
data = sys.stdin.readline()
Related
I am learning the Lua IO library. I'm having trouble with io.write(). In Programming Design in Lua, there is a piece of code that iterates through the file line by line and precedes each line with a serial number.
This is the file I`m working on:
test file: "iotest.txt"
This is my code
io.input("iotest.txt")
-- io.output("iotest.txt")
local count = 0
for line in io.lines() do
count=count+1
io.write(string.format("%6d ",count), line, "\n")
end
This is the result of the terminal display, but this result cannot be written to the file, whether I add IO. Output (" iotest.txt ") or not.
the results in terminal
This is the result of file, we can see there is no change
The result after code running
Just add io.flush() after your write operations to save the data to the file.
io.input("iotest.txt")
io.output("iotestout.txt")
local count = 0
for line in io.lines() do
count=count+1
io.write(string.format("%6d ",count), line, "\n")
end
io.flush()
io.close()
Refer to Lua 5.4 Reference Manual : 6.8 - Input and Output Facilities
io.flush() will save any written data to the output file which you set with io.output
See koyaanisqatsi's answer for the optional use of file handles. This becomes especially useful if you're working on multiple files at a time and gives you more control on how to interact with the file.
That said you should also have different files for input and output. You'll agree that it doesn't make sense to read and write from and to the same file alternatingly.
For writing to a file you need a file handle.
This handle comes from: io.open()
See: https://www.lua.org/manual/5.4/manual.html#6.8
A file handle has methods that acts on self.
Thats the function after the : at file handle.
So io.write() puts out on stdout and file:write() in a file.
Example function that can dump a defined function to a file...
fdump=function(func,path)
assert(type(func)=="function")
assert(type(path)=="string")
-- Get the file handle (file)
local file,err = io.open(path, "wb")
assert(file, err)
local chunk = string.dump(func,true)
file:write(chunk)
file:flush()
file:close()
return 'DONE'
end
Here are the methods, taken from io.stdin
close = function: 0x566032b0
seek = function: 0x566045f0
flush = function: 0x56603d10
setvbuf = function: 0x56604240
write = function: 0x56603e70
lines = function: 0x566040c0
read = function: 0x56603c90
This makes it able to use it directly like...
( Lua console: lua -i )
> do io.stdout:write('Input: ') local result=io.stdin:read() return result end
Input: d
d
You are trying to open the same file for reading and writing at the same time. You cannot do that.
There are two possible solutions:
Read from file X, iterate through it and write the result to another file Y.
Read the complete file X into memory, close file X, then delete file X, open the same filename for writing and write to it while iterating through the original file (in memory).
Otherwise, your approach is correct although file operations in Lua are more often done using io.open() and file handles instead of io.write() and io.read().
I need to load configuration variables from .conf file in lua script, and use those variables to connect to a database. I have tried using:
require "host.conf"
loadfile("host.conf") - error with unexpected token '#'
os.execute("pathToConfFile/host.lua") - and I have created a lua host file with variables in bash shell
io.popen("host.conf") etc..
None of these solutions are valid.
Is there a way to use the existing host.conf file in lua, and avoid the unexpected token error?
Thank you for your suggestions.
local original = io .open('host.conf')
local hostconf = {} -- copy contents into Lua table
for line in original :lines() do
table .insert( hostconf, line )
end ; io .close( original )
print( hostconf[1] ) -- prints line 1
You haven't specified what format your host.conf comes in, but you'll likely want to parse it better than just throwing contents in a list. Perhaps splitting each line into head / tail, based upon a delimiter ( comma, space, whatever you have between variable & value )
Thank you to everyone who helped out. My question wasn't precise and I had more to learn before I have asked and sorry about that. This is what I used to solve the problem.
local open = io.open
local function read_file(path)
local file = open(path, "r")
if not file then return nil end
local content = file:read "*a" -- *a or *all reads the whole file
local lines = {}
for line in io.lines(path) do
--print(line);
if(line:find(var)~=nil)then
local varStart=string.len(var)+2
local varEnd=string.len(line)
var=string.sub(line,varStart,varEnd)
print(var);
end
--repeat for every line
end
file:close()
return lines;
end
local fileContent = read_file("path");
I was trying to read a .txt file using lua in command prompt, I'm using 'Lua For Windows' but in the way I tried it's not working, it don't give me any error, it don't return anything, not even 'nil'.
I tried this:
file = io.open("C:\Users\user\Desktop\a.txt", "r") --(and my user's name)
io.input(file)
print(io.read())
io.close(file)
The backslash is an escape character in Lua quoted strings.
Try "C:\\Users\\user\\Desktop\\a.txt".
Or avoid the issue using long strings: [[C:\Users\user\Desktop\a.txt]].
I am trying to copy only latest file from a directory using lua file.
Latest file means : depends on modified time/created time.
How can i do this?
Referring to this question: How can I get last modified timestamp in Lua
You might be able to leverage the io.popen function to execute a shell command to get the name of the file. It seems like there's no builtin function that exposes filesystem metadata or stats. Something like this might work:
local name_handle = io.popen("ls -t1 | head -n 1")
local filename = name_handle:read()
I'm not familiar with Lua, but perhaps this helps. I imagine that once you have the name of the newest file you can use the other IO functions to do the copying.
local function get_last_file_name(directory)
local command = 'dir /a-d /o-d /tw /b "'..directory..'" 2>nul:'
-- /tw for last modified file
-- /tc for last created file
local pipe = io.popen(command)
local file_name = pipe:read()
pipe:close()
return file_name
end
local directory = [[C:\path\to\your\directory\]]
local file_name = get_last_file_name(directory)
if file_name then
print(file_name)
-- read the last file
local file = io.open(directory..file_name)
local content = file:read"*a"
file:close()
-- print content of the last file
print(content)
else
print"Directory is empty"
end
Is it possible to save the directory info obtained from os.execute("dir") into a string form?
So in the directory <DELL> I have the files info.txt and readme.txt. I want to use os.execute("dir") and have the files info.txt and readme.txt saved into string DIR. So I guess the entire string would read something like DELL; info.txt, readme.txt.
No, but using io.popen should work.
io.popen (prog [, mode])
This function is system dependent and is not available on all platforms.
Starts program prog in a separated process and returns a file handle that you can use to read data from this program (if mode is "r", the default) or to write data to this program (if mode is "w").
local p = io.popen( "dir", "r" )
local output = p:read "*a"
p:close( )
-- and use output