AW: Lua Basics: file opens and the colon?

["steffenj" <steffenj@...>]

>> kernelinfo = io.open("/proc/version"):read()

what if io.open fails? won't you get a "trying to index a nil value" or
similar error?

would the following work and throw a more reasonable error message? 
kernelinfo = assert(io.open("/proc/version")):read()


steffenj