Error message "[Comment.nvim] nil" when plugin is used with vim.pack

[rseichter]

I am experimenting with moving from Lazy to the new vim.pack plugin manager in Neovim nightly. Looks mostly OK, but I may be configuring Comment.nvim incorrectly. When using key bindings like gcc, all I get is the error message "[Comment.nvim] nil", which is not too helpful in itself.

How does one correctly configure this plugin for vim.pack? The following does not seem to work:

return {
  'numToStr/Comment.nvim',
  config = function()
    require('Comment').setup()
  end,
}

[babelfish]

I'm seeing the same thing while using lazy in neovim nightly.

[rseichter]

Oh. I did not consider that this might be an issue with the nightly Neovim build in general. I experienced the problem for the first time after I started my vim.pack tests.

[faergeek]

Seems like it's caused by this change in neovim: neovim/neovim@fd1e019

[rseichter]

@faergeek Thanks for the fix, it works for me.

[miguelgrinberg]

I also started getting this after I upgraded to Nvim 0.12. I don't think #518 is a good solution, as it just avoids using tree-sitter for the commenting logic, which is not ideal. The real problem (in my case at least) was that tree-sitter broke when I upgraded from 0.11 to 0.12.

To fix tree-sitter, I had to move the nvim-treesitter plugin from the master branch to the main branch. The code in master is compatible with Nvim < 0.12 only, and the code in main is for 0.12. Unfortunately the configuration for the main branch changed in an incompatible way. This is what I found to work for me:

    {
        'nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter',
        lazy = false,
        branch = "main",
        build = ":TSUpdate",
        init = function()
            require('nvim-treesitter').install({ 'python', 'javascript', 'typescript', 'jsx', 'tsx', 'go', 'rust', 'html', 'css', 'lua', 'vim' })
        end,
    },

In addition, the version in main requires a fairly recent version of the tree-sitter-cli tool to be installed. I took care of this by running:

cargo install --locked tree-sitter-cli

With this, comments started to work again, including the trickier cases like jsx/tsx files, which rely on tree-sitter contextual information to provide the correct commenting style.

In my previous configuration I relied on the auto_install feature to ensure there was always a tree-sitter parser available. It does not appear to be a similar option for the most recent version of the plugin, so it is important to make sure all the languages that you need are explicitly loaded.

Sadly, the nvim-treesitter repository has been archived just a couple of days ago, and I'm not sure what to do about that. But for the time being everything seems to work.

I hope this helps others with the same issue!

[faergeek]

I don't think #518 is a good solution, as it just avoids using tree-sitter for the commenting logic, which is not ideal

Saying something is not a good solution just because it doesn't solve your particular problem is a bit rough, don't you think? Comment.nvim supports not only languages that are supported by tree-sitter. There is a ton of languages which do not have a tree-sitter parser. That "not good solution" makes it work in such cases.

[rseichter]

@faergeek I wouldn't worry about the "not a good solution" comment. Your fix resolved my immediate issue, which is undoubtedly a good thing. I also believe in the old adage that perfect should not be allowed to stand in the way of good.

[miguelgrinberg]

@faergeek apologies, my choice of words was terrible, and I had no intention to offend anyone. Your solution is good, as it is the only way to make things work when you do not have a tree-sitter grammar installed for your language.

[rseichter]

@LongYinStudio Downgrading to Neovim 0.11 is not an option, what with vim.pack only being available in versions 0.12.0 and later. 😉

[rseichter]

@LongYinStudio Now I have to ask: Did you even read the comments in this issue? The reason behind this problem is quite clear, and @faergeek made a fix available three weeks ago. I can see no mystery here.

[vijay-git-hub3]

@faergeek Is there a way you can also add fix for block commenting? Its still returning nil.
Its the only reason I haven't switched to mini.comment