Re: local variables and scope

[Roberto Ierusalimschy <roberto@...>]

Follows a nice script to detect missing "local" declarations and other
"wrong" uses of global variables.

Simply put it in your path and add  require"strict" to your program
(or call "lua -lstrict").

-- Roberto

---------------------------------------------------------------------

--
-- strict.lua
-- checks uses of undeclared global variables
-- All global variables must be 'declared' through a regular assignment
-- (even assigning nil will do) in a main chunk before being used
-- anywhere or assigned to inside a function.
--

local mt = getmetatable(_G)
if mt == nil then
  mt = {}
  setmetatable(_G, mt)
end

mt.__declared = {}

mt.__newindex = function (t, n, v)
  if not mt.__declared[n] then
    local w = debug.getinfo(2, "S").what
    if w ~= "main" and w ~= "C" then
      error("assign to undeclared variable '"..n.."'", 2)
    end
    mt.__declared[n] = true
  end
  rawset(t, n, v)
end
  
mt.__index = function (t, n)
  if not mt.__declared[n] then
    error("variable '"..n.."' is not declared", 2)
  end
  return rawget(t, n)
end