The official definition of the Lua language is its reference manual, which describes the syntax and the semantics of Lua, the standard libraries, and the C API.
For a detailed introduction to the practice of Lua programming, see the book Programming in Lua, also available as an e-book. PiL4
All reference manuals are freely available under the terms of the Lua license.
The manual for the latest version of Lua is available in English only:
The manual for Lua 5.4 is available in English only:
The manual for Lua 5.3 is available in English and in Russian:
The manual for Lua 5.2 is available in English, in Portuguese, and in Polish:
5.2: english · português · polski
manualThe manual for Lua 5.1 is available in several languages:
5.1: english · português · español · deutsch · polski
Buy a copy of this book and help to support the Lua project.
The manuals for older versions are available in English only:
5.0 · 4.0 · 3.2 · 3.1 · 3.0 · 2.5 · 2.4 · 2.2 · 2.1 · 1.1 · 1.0
These manuals are also available here in PostScript and PDF.
The manuals for the Lua 5 series are also available for offline use in the download area.
Last update: Mon Dec 22 14:40:57 UTC 2025