Capture Variable Changes In Lua - variables

Question

I'm unsure where to look as far as what I could use to capture a variable change in a program loaded within another program.
Here's my code, as messy as it is:
function launch()
shell.run("clear")
print("Preparing for first time run.")
sleep(1)
print("")
local program = netTest()
local file = loadstring(program)
file()
sleep(3)
shell.run("clear")
end
function netTest()
local output = http.get("http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=hzZv3YH2")
if output then
local contents = output.readAll()
output.close()
return contents
else
print("Empty response")
return false
end
end
local program = netTest()
local file = loadstring(program)
launch()
Here's the code it's calling on:
function ping()
fails = 0
pingResult = 0
print("Testing Internet Connection.")
print("")
oldx, oldy = term.getCursorPos()
print("Connection Test 1")
http.request("http://www.google.com/")
if os.pullEvent() == "http_success" then
local oldx, oldy = term.getCursorPos()
term.setCursorPos(46,oldy-1)
io.write("Passed")
else
local oldx, oldy = term.getCursorPos()
term.setCursorPos(46,oldy-1)
io.write("Failed")
fails = fails+1
end
sleep(1)
print("Connection Test 2")
http.request("http://www.microsoft.com/")
if os.pullEvent() == "http_success" then
local oldx, oldy = term.getCursorPos()
term.setCursorPos(46,oldy-1)
io.write("Passed")
else
local oldx, oldy = term.getCursorPos()
term.setCursorPos(46,oldy-1)
io.write("Failed")
fails = fails+1
end
sleep(1)
print("Connection Test 3")
http.request("http://www.example-failure.com/")
if os.pullEvent() == "http_success" then
local oldx, oldy = term.getCursorPos()
term.setCursorPos(46,oldy-1)
io.write("Passed")
else
local oldx, oldy = term.getCursorPos()
term.setCursorPos(46,oldy-1)
io.write("Failed")
fails = fails+1
end
sleep(1)
if fails == 0 then
print("")
print("")
print("Test Complete, no failures detected.")
sleep(1.5)
elseif fails == 1 then
print("")
print("")
print("1 connection failures detected. A Website Host might be down however connectivity is still there.")
print("")
print("Test Complete.")
sleep(1.5)
elseif fails == 2 then
print("")
print("")
print("2 connection failures detected. Possible limited web connectivity.")
print("")
print("Test Complete.")
sleep(1.5)
elseif fails == 3 then
print("")
print("")
print("Catastrophic connection failure detected. A firewall or improper internet settings may be the problem.")
print("")
print("Test Complete.")
pingResult = __pingResult + 3
sleep(1.5)
end
end
ping()
What it's doing as you can see is running a program externally which will test the connection by making http requests to a couple pages to make sure there's connection to the internet. (I know, it's a bit lame, but I'm still learning).
Basically when and if the connection reads failure on all 3 stages, it'll make my pingResult variable = 3. What I'm wanting to do from the first program that called on my internet utility is record what that variable is set to. If it's set to 3 upon closing, to record that variable being set, and then for simplicity's sake, print that variable so I can see it's either 0 or 3. I'll be doing something with it later but you get the gist of it.
I've tried a couple other things but can't seem to figure out on how I go about doing this. Seeing as I'm still new I tried random stuff but none seemed to work, or I just did them wrong so I don't know what to do with it. Been trying at this one for a couple days to no success.

Answer 1

First of all, most of the code you posted is noise -- print statements, cursor manipulation, fetching Lua code from pastebin (?), all kinds of logic which has absolutely nothing to do with your question, including code which literally does nothing. That's why you haven't got a response yet.
See: How to Ask Questions the Smart Way: Volume is Not Precision.
If we strip all the extraneous stuff from your post, we're left with:
-- main.lua
local file = loadfile('nettest.lua')
file()
-- nettest.lua
pingResult = 123
Now to address your questions:
What it's doing as you can see is running a program externally:
It's not running anything externally. You've grabbed external code, but it's executed locally. Any changes that code makes to the global state is visible to you. In this case, main.lua has access to pingResult. For instance, you can write:
-- main.lua
local file = loadfile('nettest.lua')
file()
print(pingResult)
Of course, if you want a cleaner separation between your script and ping module, you should probably have that code return a value rather than write to a global:
-- main.lua
local file = loadfile('nettest.lua')
local pingResult = file()
print(pingResult)
-- nettest.lua
local pingResult
-- ... code the computes the result an stores it in pingResult ...
return pingResult