Lua employs automatic memory management for its objects. The Lua garbage collector (LGC) uses an incremental mark and sweep (M&S) strategy, in contrast to the reference counting strategy used by Python, etc.. The LGC is quite complex, and its detailed strategy and algorithms have been changed by the Lua development team in each of the Lua 5.x versions.
As is common practice for many other FLOSS source repositories, Lua's primary program documentation is the Lua source itself. The Lua code is largelyrr clear, readable, and broadly achieves this self-documenting goal. However in my view, the LGC is an exception here and thelgc.c could do with code cleanup to make it more transparently understandable, as many aspects of its implementation are clear as mud. There is a sparsity of other technical notes, specifications, etc. relating to the LGC and much of this information relates to old Lua versions, so other
