package.searchpath()

package.searchpath (name, path [, sep [, rep]])

Searches for the given name in the given path.

A path is a string containing a sequence of templates separated by semicolons. For each template, the function replaces each interrogation mark (if any) in the template with a copy of name wherein all occurrences of sep (a dot, by default) were replaced by rep (the system's directory separator, by default), and then tries to open the resulting file name.

For instance, if the path is the string

"./?.lua;./?.lc;/usr/local/?/init.lua"

the search for the name foo.a will try to open the files ./foo/a.lua, ./foo/a.lc, and /usr/local/foo/a/init.lua, in that order.

Returns the resulting name of the first file that it can open in read mode (after closing the file), or nil plus an error message if none succeeds. (This error message lists all file names it tried to open.)