Cheat Engine

[izytang]

This seems a like basic question, but I've searched long on forums, Google, documentation, and even ChatGPT. How do you disable, halt, turn off, or otherwise stop all lua scripts currently running in the background of Cheat Engine?

The only solutions I can seem to find is to run more scripts that target existing scripts (example: t.destroy() for timers). But is there a global killswitch that terminates all running scripts? I'm not seeing anything in CT's GUI for a pause/stop button, be it the lua scripting window, lua engine/output window, other menus, or know of any executable commands.

Specific to my problem, I'm testing some hotkey functionality in lua in order to execute inventory replacement and item stocking. This is more complicated than the simple freeze/toggle/increment functions within the address view Change/Set Hotkey settings. Thus the need to run a lua script - and then trigger by hotkey. But now I have multiple test functions still running from those hotkeys - how can I disable all scripts running and start clean?

While there might be something to that specific issue of hotkey scripts, I've run into this on multiple projects. Usually I have to find code to run to disable the script, or, quit CT and restart. But is there a general terminate for all scripts?

It feels silly and basic that I might be missing something fundamental, but I cannot find the answer anywhere. If such a killswitch doesn't exist, would a feature request be in order?

EDIT:

And for context on my specific issue, here's the lua code:

[ParkourPenguin]

The fundamental issue here is that scripts don't continue running after they exit. Objects you create in the script persist after the script has finished.

When you execute this script:

[izytang]

Thank you for the clarification of the internal structure of scripts and objects. To refine my question: How does one terminate all objects persisting in the background?

There are cases where I might be sandboxing, creating random objects. Is there a way to destroy all objects simultaneously? Or if not, and it has to be done with more script, is there a way to list all existing objects? I run into situations where there might be multiple randomly named objects from sandboxing, and if I don't remember all the names, there's no way to see them all.

As for my specific scenario with the hotkey handling, I did already try to destroy the object and make it nil. It did get rid of the most recently created object, but the ones created before that (under the same name) still persist. I'm guessing the objects have moved in a stack or something in the background? How can I access those?

To clarify, here's an example layout of the problem I'm facing:

Keyboard assigned key: Z

1st hkey created: print "test 1"
2nd hkey created: print "test 2"
3rd hkey created: print "test 3"

Now when I press "Z", it outputs "test 1", "test 2" and "test 3". When I destroy and nil hkey and press the key, it outputs "test 1" and "test 2". It got rid of the most recent hkey object (that printed "test 3"). If I destroy and nil hkey again, nothing new happens. I can't seem to do anything about the 1st and 2nd hkey objects created. How could I access those?

Ultimately, a global object killswitch would make the whole problem nil (pun intended). Does such a method exist?

[ParkourPenguin]

You explained things perfectly well in your first post. What I said in the second post is the best way of resolving your problem. I neglected to mention that the solution you want doesn't really exist.

[izytang]

Thank you for all this detailed and valuable information. I've since implemented object handling now that I know I need to be more conscious about it.

Normally in the past, I had just restarted CE. But in this instance, I had done a bunch of memory/address scans and hadn't yet gone through the pointer mapping to get all the base addresses. In order to proceed, I had to use CE without pressing the hotkeys, but if were a timer constantly printing to the output window, CE would be unusable, and I'd lose all my work. Basically, a simple sandboxing session sometimes turns into a whole mini-project, without going through a normal workflow.

Seems the central issue is the prevalence of leaked objects, which I suspect is beyond the scope of Lua and more of an issue with Cheat Engine itself. I'm guessing this bug fix had already been requested, but it'd be great to update Cheat Engine to address these object/memory leaks. Further, I'd like to put in a feature request for the following:

1. A GUI implementation to view and manage all running objects from Lua/AA.
2. A global killswitch for all objects and event handlers, maybe as a "Terminate" button in the Lua Engine window (or similar).

And if there's a person/place that the feature request needs to be formally sent to, feel free to link that. Thanks for clearing things up!

[ParkourPenguin]

[Dark Byte]

Just read the manual.
If something creates an object, you often have to manually destroy it
Even a simple createStringList() requires a .destroy() afterwards

And you can't just kill all timers, some timers are needed like the garbage collector, addresslist updater, foundlist updater, etc...

Just keep track of objects you have created

As for getting lots of prints, adjust that script that's causing those prints. Give the timer a selfdestruct when a certain value is set, or just destroy the timer yourself
If your issue is with the popup of the window you can do view->show on print to turn that off

Also, don't use the same global variable for different things