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Lua dofile and loadfile

Lua reference for lua dofile and loadfile.

Syntax

local chunk, error_message = loadfile("plugin.lua")
if chunk then chunk() end

Examples

Lua dofile and loadfile example

A focused example you can adapt while practising.

local chunk, error_message = loadfile("plugin.lua")
if chunk then chunk() end

Best practices

  • Start with the smallest working example, then adapt it to your project.
  • Use the language’s standard library and idioms before introducing extra dependencies.

At a glance

Purpose
Lightweight scripting and embedding
File extension
.lua
Runs in
Lua interpreter or a host application
Usually used with
Host APIs and Lua modules

Specifications & further reading

Related Lua documentation

Lua Modules
Lua modules typically return a table of public functions and values. require loads a module and returns the value it exported, caching it for later requests.Lua require
Lua reference for lua require.Lua io library
Lua reference for lua io library.Lua os library
Lua reference for lua os library.