ToC File Opening Confusion

[JBlocklove]

Despite using vimtex for years, I only just noticed the table of contents functionality and it's great! I am a little confused about how it works in larger multi-file projects. If I open the toc from my main.tex and navigate to a section in another file and hit enter or space it opens that other file just fine, but it doesn't seem to open it in a normal buffer. My buffers listed from bufferline.nvim don't show the new file and it doesn't show up with the commands :ls, :files, or :buffers. How is this file being opened? Is there a configuration setting I can use to get it to just open in a normal buffer?

[lervag]

Despite using vimtex for years, I only just noticed the table of contents functionality and it's great!

Glad to hear it!

I am a little confused about how it works in larger multi-file projects. If I open the toc from my main.tex and navigate to a section in another file and hit enter or space it opens that other file just fine, but it doesn't seem to open it in a normal buffer.

It should open it in a normal buffer. Perhaps you can share how you've configured VimTeX? I suspect you may be using some custom ToC feature or wrapper.

[JBlocklove]

Hm, that's odd. I shouldn't have any config settings that would affect that. Here's my vimtex config from my nixCats configs

-- TODO: Work on the following configs:
--		- toc
return {
	"vimtex",
	for_cat = "latex",
	before = function()
		vim.g.tex_flavor = "latex"

		vim.g.vimtex_fold_enabled = "1"
		vim.g.vimtex_fold_manual = "1"

		vim.g.compiler_method = "latexmk"

		vim.g.vimtex_view_method = "zathura"
		vim.g.vimtex_view_forward_search_on_start = "0"

		vim.g.vimtex_quickfix_mode = "2"
		vim.g.vimtex_quickfix_open_on_warning = "0"
		vim.g.vimtex_quickfix_ignore_filters = {
			"Marginpar on page",
			"Overfull \\hbox",
			"Underfull \\hbox",
		}
		vim.g.vimtex_quickfix_autoclose_after_keystrokes = "10"

	end,
}

There's nothing in the vimtex config that should have any effect on how this opens so I'm a bit worried it's an issue cropping up somewhere else in my config but I have no idea what would be messing with how buffers open.

I think I've traced the problem to being something related to my LSP, but I can't figure out what past that. I commented out pretty much all of the custom settings and the on-attach file, but just loading texlab at all seems to cause this issue.

I can't seem to replicate the problem using any other method of opening a file, though. I'm a bit rusty on the vimscript so I'm having some trouble figuring out how to replicate opening a buffer in the same manner as the ToC, could you provide some tips there so I can figure out how to replicate the issue and potentially fix it?

[lervag]

Here's my vimtex config …

You should adjust a few things here:

• Remove vim.g.tex_flavor (it is not necessary).
• Remove settings that are not changed from defaults.

The following is a better config:

return {
	"vimtex",
	for_cat = "latex",
	before = function()
		vim.g.vimtex_fold_enabled = "1"
		vim.g.vimtex_fold_manual = "1"

		vim.g.vimtex_view_method = "zathura"
		vim.g.vimtex_view_forward_search_on_start = "0"

		vim.g.vimtex_quickfix_open_on_warning = "0"
		vim.g.vimtex_quickfix_ignore_filters = {
			"Marginpar on page",
			"Overfull \\hbox",
			"Underfull \\hbox",
		}
		vim.g.vimtex_quickfix_autoclose_after_keystrokes = "10"

	end,
}

Now, what does the for_cat = "latex" do here? If it is a lazy loading mechanism, then you should remove that too! VimTeX is lazy loaded by default and forcing it with a package manager will ruin inverse search.

I think I've traced the problem to being something related to my LSP, but I can't figure out what past that. I commented out pretty much all of the custom settings and the on-attach file, but just loading texlab at all seems to cause this issue.

Can you explain the issue in more detail: what steps are you doing to reproduce the problem?

I can't seem to replicate the problem using any other method of opening a file, though. I'm a bit rusty on the vimscript so I'm having some trouble figuring out how to replicate opening a buffer in the same manner as the ToC, could you provide some tips there so I can figure out how to replicate the issue and potentially fix it?

There are several ToC interfaces, but I believe all of them rely on the builtin :edit command. Possibly with split modifiers.

[JBlocklove]

Thanks for those suggestions!

Now, what does the for_cat = "latex" do here? If it is a lazy loading mechanism, then you should remove that too! VimTeX is lazy loaded by default and forcing it with a package manager will ruin inverse search.

It's for the configuration system/plugin manager I use, nixCats-nvim. It mostly just helps with organization, I made sure not to separately lazy load vimtex.

Can you explain the issue in more detail: what steps are you doing to reproduce the problem?

I commented out all of my settings, LSP configs, and plugins other than vimtex from my init.lua and the buffer opened just fine. I started adding files back in slowly and trying again, and it finally broke when I required my LSP config again. In that I commented out requiring the on_attach function, all of the other LSPs, and the settings within the texlab LSP. No matter what I removed, the problem still showed up as long as texlab was being loaded.

To make matters weirder, the incorrect buffer behavior appears even once I've stopped texlab. It seems like as long as the LSP is running when I open main.tex that the issue persists.

Sorry I can't spin up a more traditional minimal example, I use NixOS which has some quirks when it comes to things like getting LSPs set up, so I'm stuck having to use nixCats-nvim or similar for the moment.

There are several ToC interfaces, but I believe all of them rely on the builtin :edit command. Possibly with split modifiers.

That's odd, when I just use something like :edit <file> for the same files that would be opened from the ToC they work fine.

[JBlocklove]

I found the problem! When I open main.tex the LSP opens all of the referenced files in unlisted buffers so it can scan them and build its own map of the project. If I run :ls! I see all of the files in unlisted buffers. So the ToC is seeing that a buffer for that file already exists and jumps to it (I think).

I updated my LSP config to include this autocmd to the on_attach function which seems to fix it:

	{
		"texlab",
		enabled = nixCats("latex") or false,
		lsp = {
			filetypes = { "tex", "bib" },
			on_attach = function(client,bufnr)
                local group = vim.api.nvim_create_augroup("texlabunlistfix", { clear = true })
                vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd("BufEnter", {
                    group = group,
                    pattern = "*.tex",
                    callback = function()
                        if not vim.bo.buflisted then
                            vim.bo.buflisted = true
                        end
                    end,
                })
            end,
			settings = {
				texlab = {
					auxDirectory = ".",
					bibtexFormatter = "texlab",
					build = {
						args = { "-pdf", "-interaction=nonstopmode", "-synctex=1", "%f" },
						executable = "latexmk",
						forwardSearchAfter = false,
						onSave = false,
					},
					chktex = {
						onEdit = false,
						onOpenAndSave = false,
					},
					diagnosticsDelay = 300,
					formatterLineLength = 80,
					forwardSearch = {
						args = {},
					},
					latexFormatter = "latexindent",
					latexindent = {
						modifyLineBreaks = false
					},
				},
			},
		},
	},

[lervag]

Glad to see you figured it out! And thanks for sharing your config! I think the autocommand looks good, seems like a pragmatic and good solution!