Ability to require plugin in the mini.deps post_install hook

[nicolaskribas]

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• I have read CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

Module(s)

mini.deps

Question

What I'm trying to do is to install the nvim-treesitter plugin and, synchronously, install parsers with it:

require("mini.deps").setup()
local add, now, later = MiniDeps.add, MiniDeps.now, MiniDeps.later

add {
	source = "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter",
	checkout = "main",
	hooks = {
		post_install = function() require("nvim-treesitter").install({ "stable", "unstable" }):wait() end,
	},
}

And I'm getting the error:

(mini.deps) Error executing post_install hook in `nvim-treesitter`:
/home/nicolas/.config/nvim/init.lua:108: module 'nvim-treesitter' not found:
...

I wrapped the installation of parses with later and it worked. But that's not what I originally intended.

The question is: shouldn't I be able to require the plugin I'm just installing in the post_install hook?

[echasnovski]

I wrapped the installation of parses with later and it worked. But that's not what I originally intended.

The question is: shouldn't I be able to require the plugin I'm just installing in the post_install hook?

That's a good question. The observed behavior is because all plugins are installed before executing :packadd on them. So installation has finished (i.e. post_install hook is executed) before Neovim itself "knows" about the installed plugin.

I'll think about whether it is a good idea to trigger post_install after :packadd or indeed documenting the later approach (which I also have been using in my config) is better here.

To strictly some code strictly executed just after install (and not in later() which will be executed way later), the workaround is to have post_install set some boolean flag and conditionally execute some code afterwards. So something like this:

local nvim_treesitter_installed = false
add({
  source = 'nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter',
  checkout = 'main',
  hooks = { post_install = function() nvim_treesitter_installed = true end },
})

if nvim_treesitter_installed then require('nvim-treesitter').install({ 'stable', 'unstable' }) end

[nicolaskribas]

The observed behavior is because all plugins are installed before executing :packadd on them. So installation has finished (i.e. post_install hook is executed) before Neovim itself "knows" about the installed plugin.

Got it.

I'll think about whether it is a good idea to trigger post_install after :packadd

It would make my setup more elegant, but I guess there's the use case where people change the plugin's code programmatically inside the hook (applying a patch or something) and want the plugin to be sourced only afterward.

Maybe add a new hook after the :packadd or add a new flag like run_packadd_before_hook. Just throwing some ideas.

To strictly some code strictly executed just after install (and not in later() which will be executed way later), the workaround is to have post_install set some boolean flag and conditionally execute some code afterwards

Hmm, I didn't think about that, good solution. But you gave me another idea. For now, I think I will just do:

require("mini.deps").setup()
local add, now, later = MiniDeps.add, MiniDeps.now, MiniDeps.later

add {
	source = "nvim-treesitter/nvim-treesitter",
	checkout = "main",
	hooks = {
		post_install = function(args)
			vim.cmd("packadd " .. args.name)
			require("nvim-treesitter").install({ "stable", "unstable" }):wait()
		end,
	},
}

It seems to work. Do you foresee any problems that this may cause?

[echasnovski]

It seems to work. Do you foresee any problems that this may cause?

No, not really. Maybe there will be some scripts running twice after the 'nvim-treesitter' is installed, but that should be the problem. Especially since this is (usually) only for a one time Neovim session.