LuaPosix
Lua Posix
This is a list of the Lua Posix functions. Included is helpful snippets of code. Install lua posix. To get this list do:
require "posix" for a in pairs(posix) do print(a) end
access
check real user's permissions for a file
SYNOPSIS
posix.access(pathname, mode)
DESCRIPTION
access() checks whether the calling process can access the file pathname. If pathname is a symbolic link, it is dereferenced.
The mode specifies the accessibility check(s) to be performed, and is either the string "f", or one or more of "r", "w", and "x". "f" tests for the existence of the file. "r", "w", and "x" test whether the file exists and grants read, write, and execute permissions, respectively.
RETURN VALUE
On success (all requested permissions granted), zero is returned. On error (at least one char in mode asked for a permission that is denied, or some other error occurred), nil, errorstr and errno is returned.
EXAMPLES
status, errstr, errno = posix.access("/etc/passwd", "rw")
if not posix.access("/foo", "f") then print("/foo does not exist") end
REFERENCES
http://swoolley.org/man.cgi/access
chdir
INPUT
- Path - where do you want to change directory to
OUPUT
- 0 if success
- nil if failed
bar = require "posix" bar.chdir("/etc/") --print(bar.getcwd()) to see where you are
0 if success, nil if failure. If you
print(bar.chdir("/var/lob")) -- it will print the system error message also nil /var/lob: No such file or directory 2
The access function returns three values altogether; the following example may help to distinguish their use:
lpos = require "posix" ptr, msg, code = lpos.access("/etc/dhcp") if ptr == nil then print("msg = " .. msg) print("code = " .. code) else print("ptr = " .. ptr) end
chmod
INPUT
- PATH - where is the file or directory
- MODE - what mode to you want to change on the file
OUPUT
- string - 0 if sucess, nil failure
bar = require "posix" bar.chmod("/etc/passwd", "a=rwx") --looks like you need to use the ugoa format for this, not numbers
chown
INPUT
- Path-location of file or directory
- UID - User id number
- GID - Group id number
OUPUT
- String - 0 is success and nil for failure
bar = require "posix" print(bar.chown("/etc/passwd",100,200) --above will give back nil. Since we printed it will also give back the system errors.
ctermid
INPUT
- NONE- DISPLAYS the terminal id
OUTPUT
- String with the terminal id
bar = require "posix" print(bar.ctermid())
dir
Directory listing INPUT
- PATH - directory
OUTPUT
- TABLE - table with the file name contents of the directory
- Failure returns a nil value
bar = require "posix" bobo = bar.dir("/var/log") for a,b in ipairs(bobo) do print(b) end -- the bobo table will output all the file names in /var/log/
errno
Display the error information
INPUT
- NONE
OUPUT
- Success, or Error message
bar = require "posix" a,b = bar.dir("/var/foo"), bar.errno() print(a,b) -- a will be nil or 0, b will be No such file or directory or Success
exec
Replaces the running process with the command specified. Command line arguments are given as additional arguments. (To start a sub process, you probably want fork+exec, not just exec.)
INPUT
- PATH-Location of binary
- ARGs-options to pass to binary
OUTPUT
- Strings
bar = require "posix" bobo = bar.exec("/bin/ls", "-l", "/etc/")
files
Returns an interator function that loops over each file in the given directory
INPUT
- PATH- Directory
OUPUT
require "posix"
for name in posix.files("/etc") do print (name) end
fork
INPUT
- None
OUTPUT returns: -1 on error, 0 to the child process, and the pid of the child to the parent.
require("posix") print ("parent: my pid is: " .. posix.getpid("pid")) local pid = posix.fork () if ( pid == -1 ) then print ("parent: The fork failed.") elseif ( pid == 0 ) then print ("child: Hello World! I am pid: " .. posix.getpid("pid") ) print ("child: I'll sleep for 1 second ... ") posix.sleep(1) print ("child: Good bye"); else print ("parent: While the child sleeps, I'm still running.") print ("parent: waiting for child (pid:" .. pid .. ") to die...") posix.wait(pid) print ("parent: child died, but I'm still alive.") print ("parent: Good bye") end
parent: my pid is: 11050 child: Hello World! I am pid: 11051 child: I'll sleep for 1 second ... parent: While the child sleeps, I'm still running. parent: waiting for child (pid:11051) to die... child: Good bye parent: child died, but I'm still alive. parent: Good bye
getcwd
Get current working directory INPUT
- NONE
OUTPUT
- String- contents of which is the current working directory
require "posix" print(posix.getcwd())
getenv
INPUT
- NONE
OUPUT
- Table - Current Environment settings
bar = require "posix" bobo = bar.getenv() for a,b in pairs(bobo) do print(b) end -- Varible - Value
getgroup
INPUT
- GID, or groupname
OUPUT
- TABLE -contents of which hold the group name,gid, and users
bar = require "posix" bobo = bar.getgroup(1000) for a,b in pairs(bobo) do print(a,b) end --if you use pairs then bobo will print also the name and gid or the group --if you use ipairs then just the group members 1 user1 2 user2 name wheel gid 1
getlogin
get user name
SYNOPSIS
posix.getlogin()
DESCRIPTION
getlogin() returns a string containing the name of the user logged in on the controlling terminal of the process, or nil if this information cannot be determined.
EXAMPLE
print(posix.getlogin())
getpasswd
get password file entry
SYNOPSIS
posix.getpasswd(user, field)
DESCRIPTION
getpasswd() queries the local /etc/passwd database. user can be either an uid or a username. field is a string of one of "uid", "name", "gid", "password", "gecos", "dir" or "shell".
RETURN VALUE
Returns the value of field for user. If field is omitted, a table with all fields is returned.
EXAMPLES
for a,b in pairs(posix.getpasswd("root")) do print(a,b) end
Output:
uid 0 name root gid 0 passwd x gecos root dir /root shell /bin/bash
print(posix.getpasswd("root", "shell"))
Output:
/bin/sh
getprocessid
INPUT
- Selector - either [egid,euid,gid,uid,pgrp,pid,ppid,NULL]
OUPUT
- Number that matches the current process and the selector
bar = require "posix" print(bar.getprocessid("gid")) 18456 --it just printed the current process id for the script or interactive lua.
Is there a version difference here? AL 1.7.7 calls this "getpid" Nangel
kill
INPUT
- PID- process identifier
- Signal- to send to the process
OUPUT
bar = require "posix" --kill your current process bobo = bar.getprocessid("pid") bar.kill(bobo,9) ---Signals looks to be the number signals accepted in Unix
link
Hard Links INPUT
- Oldpath-
- Newpath-
'OUTPUT If you want output 0 sucess, nil errors
bar = require "posix" bobo = bar.link("/etc/passwd", "testfile") -- 0 for success, nil for errors
mkdir
INPUT
- PATH-path to new dir
OUTPUT If you are looking for output-
- 0 for success
- nil for failure
bar = require "posix" bar.mkdir("/home/user/bobo") --set the above to a variable to get output
mkfifo
INPUT
- PATH- where to make the fifo
patchconf
get configuration values for files
SYNOPSIS
posix.pathconf(path, name)
DESCRIPTION
posix.pathconf() gets a value for configuration option name for the filename path. Setting name equal to one of the following strings returns the following configuration options:
- link_max
- returns the maximum number of links to the file. If path refer to a directory, then the value applies to the whole directory.
- max_canon
- returns the maximum length of a formatted input line, where path must refer to a terminal.
- max_input
- returns the maximum length of an input line, where path must refer to a terminal.
- name_max
- returns the maximum length of a filename in the directory path the process is allowed to create.
- path_max
- returns the maximum length of a relative pathname when path is the current working directory.
- pipe_buf
- returns the size of the pipe buffer, where path must refer to a FIFO.
- chown_restricted
- returns non-zero if the chown(2) call may not be used on this file. If path refer to a directory, then this applies to all files in that directory.
- no_trunc
- returns non-zero if accessing filenames longer than name_max generates an error.
- vdisable
- returns non-zero if special character processing can be disabled, where path must refer to a terminal.
RETURN VALUE
The limit is returned, if one exists. If name is omitted, a table of all limits is returned.
EXAMPLE
for i,j in pairs(posix.pathconf("/dev/tty" )) do print(i, j) end
Will ouput:
pipe_buf 4096 link_max 127 path_max 4096 max_canon 255 chown_restricted 1 no_trunc 1 max_input 255 name_max 255 vdisable 0
REFERENCE
http://swoolley.org/man.cgi/pathconf
putenv
readlink
rmdir
setgid
setuid
sleep
stat
symlink
sysconf
times
ttyname
umask
uname
utime
wait
If you are using this under linux also get