Question 1

How to hide passwords when using inspect.lua for debugging?

Accepted Answer

Use the process function option to check for keys like 'password' and return a masked value. For example, define a function that returns 'XXXX' when the path ends with 'password', as shown in the README's anonymize_password example.

Question 2

inspect.lua vs Lua's standard tostring – which is better for table debugging?

Accepted Answer

inspect.lua provides structured, readable output for complex tables, while tostring often gives less helpful representations like 'table: 0x...'. For debugging nested or hybrid tables, inspect.lua is superior due to its formatted output and cycle detection.

Question 3

Can inspect.lua handle circular references in tables?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it has built-in cycle detection that marks repeated tables with IDs, preventing infinite loops. The README shows an example with tables referencing each other, outputting '<1>{ 1, 2, { 3, 4, } }'.

Question 4

How to limit the depth of nested table inspection with inspect.lua?

Accepted Answer

Set the depth option in the options table. For instance, {depth = 2} will stop parsing and show '{...}' beyond the second level, as demonstrated in the examples with deeply nested tables.

Question 5

Is inspect.lua suitable for production logging?

Accepted Answer

While useful for development debugging, the formatted output can be verbose and slow. For production, consider performance overhead and use it selectively, such as for error logs, but avoid high-frequency logging due to potential bottlenecks.

Question 6

What are some alternatives to inspect.lua for Lua debugging?

Accepted Answer

Alternatives include penlight.pl.pretty for similar pretty-printing, or libraries like cjson for serialization to JSON if machine-readable output is needed. inspect.lua excels in human readability but lacks serialization features.

inspect.lua

What is inspect.lua?

Overview

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Frequently Asked Questions