关于 lua_State

lua_State 是什么东西

lua 5.1

    lua_State L = luaL_newstate();

在使用lua API 时第一步经常是上面这句话，那么 lua_State 到底是什么东西？

先看看下面对 luaL_newstate() 的实现

// luaxlib.h
LUALIB_API lua_State *(luaL_newstate) (void);

// luaxlib.c
LUALIB_API lua_State *luaL_newstate (void) {
  lua_State *L = lua_newstate(l_alloc, NULL);
  if (L) lua_atpanic(L, &panic);
  return L;
}

继续看 luaL_newstate 是怎么创建 lua_State 的

LUA_API lua_State *lua_newstate (lua_Alloc f, void *ud) {
  int i;
  lua_State *L;
  global_State *g;
  void *l = (*f)(ud, NULL, 0, state_size(LG));
  if (l == NULL) return NULL;
  L = tostate(l);
  ...
  return L;
}

可见在调用 luaL_newstate 时创建的是 LG 类型的对象，继续看 LG 的定义。

LG 定义

/*
** Main thread combines a thread state and the global state
*/
typedef struct LG {
  lua_State l;
  global_State g;
} LG;

lua 5.2 之后

/*
** thread state + extra space
*/
typedef struct LX {
  lu_byte extra_[LUA_EXTRASPACE];
  lua_State l;
} LX;

/*
** Main thread combines a thread state and the global state
*/
typedef struct LG {
  LX l;
  global_State g;
} LG;

由此可见 LG 是一个包含了线程状态即 lua_State 和 全局状态的结构体。
即，我们在调用 luaL_newstate 是创建了 LG，给我们返回的是 LG 的属性 lua_State
而 global_State 对我们来说是不可见的。

一下是对 lua_State 和 global_State 的定义

/*
** `per thread' state
*/
struct lua_State {
  CommonHeader;
  lu_byte status;
  StkId top;  /* first free slot in the stack */
  StkId base;  /* base of current function */
  global_State *l_G;
  CallInfo *ci;  /* call info for current function */
  const Instruction *savedpc;  /* `savedpc' of current function */
  StkId stack_last;  /* last free slot in the stack */
  StkId stack;  /* stack base */
  CallInfo *end_ci;  /* points after end of ci array*/
  CallInfo *base_ci;  /* array of CallInfo's */
  int stacksize;
  int size_ci;  /* size of array `base_ci' */
  unsigned short nCcalls;  /* number of nested C calls */
  unsigned short baseCcalls;  /* nested C calls when resuming coroutine */
  lu_byte hookmask;
  lu_byte allowhook;
  int basehookcount;
  int hookcount;
  lua_Hook hook;
  TValue l_gt;  /* table of globals */
  TValue env;  /* temporary place for environments */
  GCObject *openupval;  /* list of open upvalues in this stack */
  GCObject *gclist;
  struct lua_longjmp *errorJmp;  /* current error recover point */
  ptrdiff_t errfunc;  /* current error handling function (stack index) */
};

/*
** `global state', shared by all threads of this state
*/
typedef struct global_State {
  stringtable strt;  /* hash table for strings */
  lua_Alloc frealloc;  /* function to reallocate memory */
  void *ud;         /* auxiliary data to `frealloc' */
  lu_byte currentwhite;
  lu_byte gcstate;  /* state of garbage collector */
  int sweepstrgc;  /* position of sweep in `strt' */
  GCObject *rootgc;  /* list of all collectable objects */
  GCObject **sweepgc;  /* position of sweep in `rootgc' */
  GCObject *gray;  /* list of gray objects */
  GCObject *grayagain;  /* list of objects to be traversed atomically */
  GCObject *weak;  /* list of weak tables (to be cleared) */
  GCObject *tmudata;  /* last element of list of userdata to be GC */
  Mbuffer buff;  /* temporary buffer for string concatentation */
  lu_mem GCthreshold;
  lu_mem totalbytes;  /* number of bytes currently allocated */
  lu_mem estimate;  /* an estimate of number of bytes actually in use */
  lu_mem gcdept;  /* how much GC is `behind schedule' */
  int gcpause;  /* size of pause between successive GCs */
  int gcstepmul;  /* GC `granularity' */
  lua_CFunction panic;  /* to be called in unprotected errors */
  TValue l_registry;
  struct lua_State *mainthread;
  UpVal uvhead;  /* head of double-linked list of all open upvalues */
  struct Table *mt[NUM_TAGS];  /* metatables for basic types */
  TString *tmname[TM_N];  /* array with tag-method names */
} global_State;