Re: GC and userdata objects

[Roberto Ierusalimschy <roberto@...>]

> Hi. I have tried using GC step before but did not quite succeed in
> resolving similar issues but that could have been due to my lack of
> understanding. Is there an example of how it should be used?

Memory managed by Lua:

  void *u = lua_newuserdata(L, Nbytes);
  /* no other action required; Lua already knows about the allocation */


Memory managed outside Lua:

  void **u = lua_newuserdata(L, sizeof(void*));

  /* code to set metatable with __gc for the new userdata */
  luaL_getmetatable(L, whatever);
  lua_setmetatable(L, -2);

  /* allocate memory for the new userdata */
  *u = malloc(Nbytes);
  if (*u == NULL) error ...;

  /* Lua does not know about the allocation */
  lua_gc(L, LUA_GCSTEP, Nbytes / 1024);  /* tell Lua about it */

-- Roberto