LuaAPI/wesnoth

The wesnoth module contains most of the core Wesnoth API. It is always loaded and available.

Loads and executes a file. The rules for locating the files are the same as for WML files, except that they require a .lua extension instead of .cfg. Any extra parameters to dofile are forwarded to the script (which can access them via the special ... variable), and dofile returns all the values returned by the script.

wesnoth.require

wesnoth.require(module) → module_contents

Returns the contents of the specified module, loading it if necessary. The module can either be a simple name or a file path similar to that used by wesnoth.dofile. In addition, the .lua extension will automatically be appended if necessary. The module script is invoked with no arguments, and wesnoth.require then passes back its first return value, discarding any additional ones. If the module is a directory, then all lua files are loaded, and a table containing the resulting modules is returned, with the keys being the filenames minus the .lua extension.

wesnoth.require returns nil on failure, for example if it could not locate the module. If it did locate the module, but the module did not return anything (or returned nil), then wesnoth.require returns an empty table with a metatable that raises an error on any attempt to access it.

wesnoth.read_file

wesnoth.read_file(file_path) → file_contents

Loads a file into memory and returns it as a string. The rules for locating the files are the same as for WML files, but with no requirements on file extension. If the path points to a directory, it instead returns a table containing a list of directory entries, sorted alphabetically with directories grouped at the beginning. In this case, there is also an ndirs member which contains the number of entries that are directories, allowing you to easily skip the directories if you wish.

wesnoth.have_file

wesnoth.have_file(file_path[, only_as_regular_file]) → boolean

Checks if a file exists. The rules for locating the files are the same as for WML files. Using the second parameter, you can distinguish regular files from directories.

wesnoth.textdomain

wesnoth.textdomain(domain) → textdomain_constructor

Returns a callable userdata that can be used to construct translatable strings. A typical use is:

local _ = wesnoth.textdomain "example"
wesnoth.alert(_ "This is an example translated string!")

The full syntax for using the result of this function is:

textdomain_constructor(string [, string_plural, number]) → translatable_string

By passing the optional arguments, you can vary the string based on a number that will be substituted into it. As with all Lua functions, the parentheses are optional when passing a single string argument, as in the above example.

wesnoth.interface

(Version 1.15.0 and later only)

A submodule containing functions pertaining to the in-game UI.

wesnoth.units