+-- lua -l mlc_xcall -e 'luafile_to_astfile ("/tmp/tmp12345.lua", "/tmp/tmp54321.ast")'
+-- lua -l mlc_xcall -e 'lua_to_astfile ("/tmp/tmp54321.ast")'
+
+mlc_xcall = { }
+
+function mlc_xcall.server (luafilename, astfilename)
+
+ -- We don't want these to be loaded when people only do client-side business
+ require 'metalua.compiler'
+ require 'serialize'
+
+ -- compile the content of luafile name in an AST, serialized in astfilename
+ local ast = mlc.luafile_to_ast (luafilename)
+ local out = io.open (astfilename, 'w')
+ out:write (serialize (ast))
+ out:close ()
+end
+
+function mlc_xcall.client_file (luafile)
+
+ --printf("\n\nmlc_xcall.client_file(%q)\n\n", luafile)
+
+ local tmpfilename = os.tmpname()
+ local cmd = string.format ([[lua -l metalua.mlc_xcall -e "mlc_xcall.server('%s', '%s')"]],
+ luafile :gsub ([[\]], [[\\]]),
+ tmpfilename :gsub([[\]], [[\\]]))
+
+ --printf("os.execute [[%s]]\n\n", cmd)
+
+ local ret = os.execute (cmd)
+ if ret~=0 then error "xcall failure. FIXME: transmit failure and backtrace" end
+ local ast = (lua_loadfile or loadfile) (tmpfilename) ()
+ os.remove(tmpfilename)
+ return true, ast
+end
+
+function mlc_xcall.client_literal (luasrc)
+ local srcfilename = os.tmpname()
+ local srcfile, msg = io.open (srcfilename, 'w')
+ if not srcfile then print(msg) end
+ srcfile :write (luasrc)
+ srcfile :close ()
+ local status, ast = mlc_xcall.client_file (srcfilename)
+ os.remove(srcfilename)
+ return status, ast
+end
+
+return mlc_xcall
\ No newline at end of file