[Q] print function and stdout redirection?

["Leo Razoumov" <slonik.az@...>]

Hi All,
I am a bit surpprised that redirecting stdout to a file by means of
io.output(file) has no effect on print(...) function. For example,
executing the following code snippet with Lua-5.1.2 on Ubuntu-7.4
linux

io.output("/tmp/tmp.log")
print(1,2,3,4,5)

leaves the file /tmp/tmp.log empty and a sting of output goes to the
terminal screen (default stdout) instead.  Quick look at  "luaB_print"
function (file:  src/lbaselib.c) reveals that it uses "stdout" as
defined in #include<stdio.h> and it seems that it cannot be changed
from within the Lua itself.

Am I missing something? Is it a bug or an intended behavior?
Unlike "print" io.write behaves as expected.

Thanks,
--Leo--