luaposix
========

By the [luaposix project][GitHub]

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luaposix is a POSIX binding, including curses, for [Lua] 5.1, 5.2 and
5.3; like most libraries it simply binds to C APIs on the underlying
system, so it won't work on non-POSIX systems. However, it does try
to detect the level of POSIX conformance of the underlying system and
bind only available APIs.

luaposix is released under the MIT license, like Lua (see [COPYING];
it's basically the same as the BSD license). There is no warranty.

Please report bugs and make suggestions by opening an issue on the
github tracker.

Installation
------------

The simplest way to install luaposix is with [LuaRocks]. To install the
latest release (recommended):

    luarocks install luaposix

To install current git master (for testing):

    luarocks install https://raw.github.com/luaposix/luaposix/release/luaposix-git-1.rockspec

To install without LuaRocks, check out the sources from the
[repository][GitHub] and run the following commands:

    cd luaposix
    ./bootstrap
    ./configure --prefix=INSTALLATION-ROOT-DIRECTORY
    make all check install

Dependencies are listed in the dependencies entry of the file
`rockspec.conf`. You will also need Autoconf and Automake.

See [INSTALL] for `configure` instructions and `configure --help`
for details of available command-line switches.

Use
---

The library is split into submodules according to the POSIX header file
API declarations.

HTML documentation can be generated with [LDoc] by running `make doc`
or viewed online at <http://luaposix.github.io/luaposix/>.

The authoritative online POSIX reference is at
<http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904875/toc.htm>.

Example code
------------

See the example program `tree.lua`, along with the many small
examples in the generated documentation and BDD `specs/*_spec.yaml`.

For a complete application, see the [GNU Zile].

Bugs reports & patches
----------------------

Bug reports and patches are most welcome. Please use the github issue
tracker (see URL at top). There is no strict coding style, but please
bear in mind the following points when writing new code:

0. Follow existing code. There are a lot of useful patterns and
   avoided traps there.

1. 8-character indentation using TABs in C sources; 2-character
   indentation using SPACEs in Lua sources.

2. No non-POSIX APIs; no platform-specific code. When wrapping APIs
   introduced in POSIX 2001 or later, add an appropriate #if. If your
   platform isn't quite POSIX, you may find a gnulib module to bridge
   the gap. If absolutely necessary, use autoconf feature tests.

3. Thin wrappers: although some existing code contradicts this, wrap
   POSIX APIs in the simplest way possible. If necessary, more
   convenient wrappers can be added in Lua (posix.lua).


[Lua]: http://www.lua.org/
[GitHub]: https://github.com/luaposix/luaposix
[LuaRocks]: http://www.luarocks.org "Lua package manager"
[LDoc]: https://github.com/stevedonovan/LDoc "Lua documentation generator"
[COPYING]: https://raw.github.com/luaposix/luaposix/release/COPYING
[INSTALL]: https://raw.github.com/luaposix/luaposix/release/INSTALL
[GNU Zile]: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/zile.git/log/?h=lua "A cut-down Emacs clone"