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-$Id$
-
-PLUTO - Heavy duty persistence for Lua
-
-Pluto is a library which allows users to write arbitrarily large portions
-of the "Lua universe" into a flat file, and later read them back into the
-same or a different Lua universe. Object references are appropriately
-handled, such that the file contains everything needed to recreate the
-objects in question.
-
-Pluto has the following major features:
-* Can persist any Lua function
-* Can persist threads
-* Works with any Lua chunkreader/chunkwriter
-* Support for "invariant" permanent objects, of all datatypes
-* Can invoke metafunctions for custom persistence of tables and userdata
-
-Pluto 2.2 requires Lua 5.1.3. If you need to use Pluto with Lua
-5.0, please use version 1.2 of Pluto.
-
-Starting with version 2.2, Pluto no longer depends on the Lua sources.
-Instead, it subsumes the required headers into its own codebase.
-As a result, it may not work properly with Lua version 5.1.4 or later.
-
-Pluto may have bugs. Users are advised to define lua_assert in
-luaconf.h to something useful when compiling in debug mode, to catch
-assertions by Pluto and Lua.
-
-The Pluto library consists of two public functions.
-
-int pluto_persist(lua_State *L, lua_Chunkwriter writer, void *ud)
-
-This function recursively persists the Lua object in stack position 2
-and all other objects which are directly or indirectly referenced by
-it, except those referenced in the permanent object table. The data
-is written using the chunk-writer given, and that writer is passed
-the arbitrary pointer value ud.
-
-The Lua stack must contain exactly and only these two items, in order:
-
-1. A table of permanent objects, that should not be persisted. For each
-permanent object, the object itself should be the key, and a unique
-object of any type should be the value. Likely candidates for this table
-include Lua functions (including those in the Lua libraries) that are
-loaded at load-time. It must include all non-persistable objects that
-are referenced by the object to be persisted. The table is not modified
-by the function. Objects in this table are considered "opaque" and are
-not examined or descended into. Objects should not appear in the table
-multiple times; the result of doing this is undefined (though probably
-harmless). NOTE: If you are planning to persist threads, keep in mind
-that all yielded threads have coroutine.yield on the tops of their
-stacks. Since it's a C function, it should be put here. For complex
-permanents, it may be a good idea to use the __index meta-function of
-the permanents table to "search" for permanents.
-
-2. The single object to be persisted. In many cases, this will be the
-global table. For more flexibility, however, it may be something like a
-table built for the occasion, with various values to keep track of. The
-object may not be nil.
-
-
-int pluto_unpersist(lua_State *L, lua_Chunkreader reader, void *ud)
-
-This function loads in a Lua object and places it on top of the stack. All
-objects directly or indirectly referenced by it are also loaded.
-
-The Lua stack must contain, as its top value, a table of permanent
-objects. This table should be like the permanent object table used when
-persisting, but with the key and value of each pair reversed. These
-objects are used as substitutes for those referenced in their positions
-when persisting, and under most circumstances should be identical objects
-to those referenced in the permanents table used for persisting. It's
-okay for multiple keys to refer to the same object.
-
-
-RUNNING PLUTO FROM LUA:
-It is also possible to invoke pluto from a Lua script. The C function
-pluto_open() will register pluto.persist and pluto.unpersist, lua functions
-which operate on strings. The first takes a permanents table and a root
-object, and returns a string; the second takes a permanents table and a
-string, and returns the root object.
-
-An error will be raised if pluto.persist is called from a thread which is
-itself referenced by the root object.
-
-SPECIAL PERSISTENCE:
-Tables and userdata have special persistence semantics. These semantics are
-keyed to the value of the object's metatable's __persist member, if any. This
-member may be any of the following four values:
-1. Boolean "true": The table or userdata is persisted literally; tables are
-persisted member-by-member, and userdata are written out as literal data.
-2. Boolean "false": An error is returned, indicating that the object cannot
-be persisted.
-3. A function: This function should take one argument, the object in question,
-and return one result, a closure. This "fixup closure", in turn, will be
-persisted, and during unpersistence will be called. The closure will be
-responsible for recreating the object with the appropriate data, based on
-its upvalues.
-4. Nil, or no metatable. In the case of tables, the table is literally
-persisted. In the case of userdata, an error is returned.
-
-Here's an example of special persistence for a simple 3d vector object:
-
-vec = { x = 2, y = 1, z = 4 }
-setmetatable(vec, { __persist = function(oldtbl)
- local x = oldtbl.x
- local y = oldtbl.y
- local z = oldtbl.z
- local mt = getmetatable(oldtbl)
- return function()
- newtbl = {}
- newtbl.x = x
- newtbl.y = y
- newtbl.z = z
- setmetatable(newtbl, mt)
- return newtbl
- end
-end })
-
-Note how x, y, z, and the mt are explicitly pulled out of the table. It is
-important that the fixup closure returned not reference the original table
-directly, as that table would again be persisted as an upvalue, leading to an
-infinite loop. Also note that the object's metatable is NOT automatically
-persisted; it is necessary for the fixup closure to reset it, if it wants.
-
-LIMITATIONS/TODO:
-* Light userdata are persisted literally, as their pointer values. This
-may or may not be what you want.
-* Closures of C functions may not be persisted. Once it becomes possible
-to specify a C function "proto" as a permanent object, this restriction
-will be relaxed.
-
-BUGS: None known. Emphasis on the 'known'.