Connections

This page provides an overview of the getconnections function, its uses, and its implementation internally in RbxStu V3.

Connections in Roblox are, in general, a weird concept. They come in two forms.

C Connections and.Luau Connections Luau connections are connections formed using the RBXScriptSignalstructure, while C connections are natively created using the C implementation of it, instead of its Luau abstraction.

To interact with connections, you can make use of the UNC-defined getconnectionsfunction.

Function definition

function getconnections(signal: RBXScriptSignal): { RbxStuConnection }

High-Level Overview:

getconnectionsworks by obtaining the connections that are part of the RBXScriptSignal's linked list and pushing a Luau representation of the native structures.

Low-Level Overview:

getconnectionsworks by first obtaining a pointer to the head of the list. This is done by first establishing a connection itself using :Connect , obtaining anRBXScriptConnection, also known as a SignalBridge in some cases. This signal bridge holds pointers to the head of the list and to the 'owner,' being the signal itself. After obtaining the respective pointer, it is dereferenced over and over until we reach the end of the list, pushing an abstraction that will do the required modifications to the structure with each function.

Remarks

All connections are only being fired on the client. No connection is ever fired to the server side when using the Connections API. This is why functions like replicatesignal exist, as there is no way to replicate signals using the approach getconnection uses.

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RbxStuConnection

This is an abstraction on top of the ROBLOX connection structure, it can be used to manage all the aspects of a Luau Connection, yet not all of a C connection.

Fields

• Enabled: boolean

  • If true, the connection is fired when the event is triggered, else, it is false.

• Function: function?

  • This field is nil on C Connections and on connections that were established in another Luau VM (Actor/different global state).

• LuaConnection: boolean

  • Whether the connection was established using C or Luau, resulting in false or true, respectively.

• ForeignState: boolean

  • Whether the connection was established in another Luau VM (Actor/different global state).

• Thread: thread

  • The thread that established the connection.

  • This field is nilon C Connectionsand on connections that were established in another Luau VM (Actor/different global state).

Functions

• functionRbxStuConnection:Fire(...) -> ()

  • Proxy to RbxStuConnection:Defer(...)

• functionRbxStuConnection:Defer(...) -> ()

  • Fires the connection by utilising task.defer on a new thread created by the Roblox global state; this prevents potential Environment Hijackattempts.

  • Connections formed by another Luau VM will not be fired and will error on call.

  • Attempting to call C Connectionswill error due to security complications.

• functionRbxStuConnection:Disable() -> ()

  • This function will disable the connection from being fired; however, it will not disconnect it.

• functionRbxStuConnection:Enable() -> ()

  • This function will allow the connection to be fired when the event is triggered.

• functionRbxStuConnection:Disconnect() -> ()

  • This function will disconnect the connection by calling RBXScriptConnection:Disconnect() on it.

  • This allows the developer to know you have disconnected it; thus, unless you want to be destructive, it is heavily recommended to use RbxStuConnection:Enable()and RbxStuConnection:Disable()instead.

Remarks

While firing across Luau VMs is planned to be supported, it is currently not included on the alpha release of RbxStu V3 due to security concerns with memory corruptions by potentially passing GCables across the LVM boundary, which could at any moment be freed by the other Luau VM, resulting in dangerous conditions.

Low-Level Overview

The FunctionandThreadfields are referenced on the Luau Registry. This means you can grab the function from the field and search for it in the Lua Registry. This also means you could replace it yourself using hookfunction, creating hookconnection if you will; this also means (most likely) that if a thread or function is present on the,Luau Registry then it is likely it is the result of an RBXScriptSignal connection.

Examples

Obtaining all connections of an RBXScriptSignal

local connectionsList = getconnections(game.ChildAdded) -- Obtains the list of connections that game.ChildAdded has established

for _, connection in connectionsList do
    print(connection.Enabled)        -- Print if the connection is Enabled
end

Disabling all connections of an RBXScriptSignal

local connectionsList = getconnections(game.ChildAdded) -- Obtains the list of connections that game.ChildAdded has established

for _, connection in connectionsList do
    print(connection.Enabled)        -- Should print true
    connection:Disable()             -- Disable the connection.
    print(connection.Enabled)        -- Should print false and no longer fire the connection.
end

Disconnecting all connections of an RBXScriptSignal

local rbxConnection = game.ChildAdded:Connect(function() end)
local connectionsList = getconnections(game.ChildAdded) -- Obtains the list of connections that game.ChildAdded has established

for _, connection in connectionsList do
    print(connection.Enabled)        -- Should print true
    connection:Disconnect()          -- Disconnect the connection.
    print(connection.Enabled)        -- Should print false.
end
print(rbxConnection.Connected)    -- Should print false

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There is no alternative API to the Connections API, and there are no plans to include replicatesignaldue to its potential complexity.