README.md

LuaDecompy

An experimental Lua 5.1 dump decompiler (typically dumped using luac -o <out.luac> <script.lua>).

You will quickly find that only extremely simple scripts are decompiled successfully right now. This is an experimental project and not all opcodes are properly handled for now. If you need a real decompiler I would recommend any of the handful of ones that exist already.

Why?

Lua has a relatively small instruction set (only 38 different opcodes!). This makes it pretty feasible for a weekend decompiler project. (real) Decompilers are extremely complex pieces of software, so being able to write a simpler one helps show the theory without much of the headache.

Example usage

> cat example.lua && luac5.1 -o example.luac example.lua
local printMsg = function(append)
    local tbl = {"He", "llo", " ", "Wo"}
    local str = ""

    for i = 1, #tbl do
        str = str .. tbl[i]
    end

    print(str .. append)
end

printMsg("rld!")
> python main.py example.luac
example.luac

==== [[example.lua's constants]] ====

0: [STRING] rld!

==== [[example.lua's locals]] ====

R[0]: printMsg

==== [[example.lua's dissassembly]] ====

[  0]    CLOSURE :   R[0]      0               ; 
[  1]       MOVE :      1      0      0        ; move R[0] into R[1]
[  2]      LOADK :   R[2]   K[0]               ; load "rld!" into R[2]
[  3]       CALL :      1      2      1        ; 
[  4]     RETURN :      0      1      0        ; 

==== [[example.lua's protos]] ====


==== [['s constants]] ====

0: [STRING] He
1: [STRING] llo
2: [STRING]  
3: [STRING] Wo
4: [STRING] 
5: [NUMBER] 1.0
6: [STRING] print

==== [['s locals]] ====

R[0]: append
R[1]: tbl
R[2]: str
R[3]: (for index)
R[4]: (for limit)
R[5]: (for step)
R[6]: i

==== [['s dissassembly]] ====

[  0]   NEWTABLE :      1      4      0        ; 
[  1]      LOADK :   R[2]   K[0]               ; load "He" into R[2]
[  2]      LOADK :   R[3]   K[1]               ; load "llo" into R[3]
[  3]      LOADK :   R[4]   K[2]               ; load " " into R[4]
[  4]      LOADK :   R[5]   K[3]               ; load "Wo" into R[5]
[  5]    SETLIST :      1      4      1        ; 
[  6]      LOADK :   R[2]   K[4]               ; load "" into R[2]
[  7]      LOADK :   R[3]   K[5]               ; load 1 into R[3]
[  8]        LEN :      4      1      0        ; 
[  9]      LOADK :   R[5]   K[5]               ; load 1 into R[5]
[ 10]    FORPREP :   R[3]      3               ; 
[ 11]       MOVE :      7      2      0        ; move R[2] into R[7]
[ 12]   GETTABLE :   R[8]      1   R[6]        ; 
[ 13]     CONCAT :      2      7      8        ; concat 2 values from R[7] to R[8], store into R[2]
[ 14]    FORLOOP :   R[3]     -4               ; 
[ 15]  GETGLOBAL :   R[3]   K[6]               ; move _G["print"] into R[3]
[ 16]       MOVE :      4      2      0        ; move R[2] into R[4]
[ 17]       MOVE :      5      0      0        ; move R[0] into R[5]
[ 18]     CONCAT :      4      4      5        ; concat 2 values from R[4] to R[5], store into R[4]
[ 19]       CALL :      3      2      1        ; 
[ 20]     RETURN :      0      1      0        ; 

==== [[example.lua's pseudo-code]] ====

local printMsg = function(append)
    local tbl = {"He", "llo", " ", "Wo", }
    local str = ""
    for i = 1, #tbl, 1 do
        str = str .. tbl[i]
    end
    print(str .. append)
end

printMsg("rld!")