Running :PackerSync with vimtex causes neovim to crash

[dsoto1219]

• nvim --version:

NVIM v0.9.0
Build type: RelWithDebInfo
LuaJIT 2.1.0-beta3
Compilation: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/Enterprise/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.29.30133/bin/Hostx64/x64/cl.exe /MD /Zi /O2 /Ob1  -W3 -wd4311 -wd4146 -DUNIT_TESTING -D_CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS -D_CRT_NONSTDC_NO_DEPRECATE -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0602 -DMSWIN -DINCLUDE_GENERATED_DECLARATIONS -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include/luajit-2.1 -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/build/src/nvim/auto -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/build/include -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/build/cmake.config -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/src -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include -ID:/a/neovim/neovim/.deps/usr/include

   system vimrc file: "$VIM\sysinit.vim"
  fall-back for $VIM: "C:/Program Files (x86)/nvim/share/nvim"

• git --version: git version 2.41.0.windows.1
• Operating system/version: Microsoft Windows 11 Home/Version 22H2
• Terminal name/version: Powershell 7.3.4

Steps to reproduce

1. When setting up packer, install any plugins you want that are not VimTex. Here is my specific setup I have in my plugins.lua file, while is required by my init.lua:

return packer.startup(function(use)

	use "wbthomason/packer.nvim"
	use "nvim-lua/popup.nvim"
	use "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim"
	-- use 'lervag/vimtex'

end)

2. Run :PackerSync. This should behave as normal. If using the specific plugins I have from before, packer should install/update each of the 3 plugins without issue.
3. Add in the line use 'lervag/vimtex' to the packer.startup function:

return packer.startup(function(use)

	use "wbthomason/packer.nvim"
	use "nvim-lua/popup.nvim"
	use "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim"
	use 'lervag/vimtex'

end)

4. Run :PackerSync. This time, each plugin should load to 100% and then turn to a checkmark, except for VimTex. VimTex should only load to 100%, without a checkmark. Before it gets a chance to turn to a checkmark, neovim should crash, and you should be met with the powershell cli interface.

Actual behaviour

Neovim crashes.

Expected behaviour

Neovim would continue to run after the command :PackerSync is run.

packer files

Plugin specification file(s)

local fn = vim.fn

-- Automatically install packer
local install_path = fn.stdpath "data" .. "/site/pack/packer/start/packer.nvim/"
if fn.empty(fn.glob(install_path)) > 0 then
	PACKER_BOOTSTRAP = fn.system {
		"git",
		"clone",
		"--depth",
		"1",
		"https://github.com/wbthomason/packer.nvim",
		install_path,
	}
	print("Installing packer, close and reopen Neovim ...")
	vim.cmd [[packadd packer.nvim]]
end

-- Autocommand that reloads neovim whenever you save the plugins.lua file
vim.cmd([[
	augroup packer_user_config
		autocmd!
		autocmd BufWritePost plugins.lua source <afile> | PackerSync
	augroup end
]])

-- Use a protected call so we don't error out on first use
local status_ok, packer = pcall(require, "packer")
if not status_ok then
	return
end

-- Have packer use a popup window
packer.init {
	display = {
		open_fn = function()
			return require("packer.util").float { border = "rounded" }
		end,
	}
}

-- Plugins List
return packer.startup(function(use)

	use "wbthomason/packer.nvim"
	use "nvim-lua/popup.nvim"
	use "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim"

	-- cmp
	use 'hrsh7th/nvim-cmp'
	use 'hrsh7th/cmp-buffer'
	use 'hrsh7th/cmp-path'
	use 'hrsh7th/cmp-cmdline'

	-- snippets
	use 'L3MON4D3/LuaSnip'
	use 'rafamadriz/friendly-snippets'

	if PACKER_BOOTSTRAP then
		require("packer").sync()
	end
end)

packer log file

Post the contents of ~/.cache/nvim/packer.nvim.log here <- That file does not exist for me, but there are files within a ~/.cache/vimtex/ directory: capture.json, nvim_servernames.json.

packer compiled file

-- Automatically generated packer.nvim plugin loader code

if vim.api.nvim_call_function('has', {'nvim-0.5'}) ~= 1 then
  vim.api.nvim_command('echohl WarningMsg | echom "Invalid Neovim version for packer.nvim! | echohl None"')
  return
end

vim.api.nvim_command('packadd packer.nvim')

local no_errors, error_msg = pcall(function()

_G._packer = _G._packer or {}
_G._packer.inside_compile = true

local time
local profile_info
local should_profile = false
if should_profile then
  local hrtime = vim.loop.hrtime
  profile_info = {}
  time = function(chunk, start)
    if start then
      profile_info[chunk] = hrtime()
    else
      profile_info[chunk] = (hrtime() - profile_info[chunk]) / 1e6
    end
  end
else
  time = function(chunk, start) end
end

local function save_profiles(threshold)
  local sorted_times = {}
  for chunk_name, time_taken in pairs(profile_info) do
    sorted_times[#sorted_times + 1] = {chunk_name, time_taken}
  end
  table.sort(sorted_times, function(a, b) return a[2] > b[2] end)
  local results = {}
  for i, elem in ipairs(sorted_times) do
    if not threshold or threshold and elem[2] > threshold then
      results[i] = elem[1] .. ' took ' .. elem[2] .. 'ms'
    end
  end
  if threshold then
    table.insert(results, '(Only showing plugins that took longer than ' .. threshold .. ' ms ' .. 'to load)')
  end

  _G._packer.profile_output = results
end

time([[Luarocks path setup]], true)
local package_path_str = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\nvim\\packer_hererocks\\2.1.0-beta3\\share\\lua\\5.1\\?.lua;C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\nvim\\packer_hererocks\\2.1.0-beta3\\share\\lua\\5.1\\?\\init.lua;C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\nvim\\packer_hererocks\\2.1.0-beta3\\lib\\luarocks\\rocks-5.1\\?.lua;C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\nvim\\packer_hererocks\\2.1.0-beta3\\lib\\luarocks\\rocks-5.1\\?\\init.lua"
local install_cpath_pattern = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\nvim\\packer_hererocks\\2.1.0-beta3\\lib\\lua\\5.1\\?.so"
if not string.find(package.path, package_path_str, 1, true) then
  package.path = package.path .. ';' .. package_path_str
end

if not string.find(package.cpath, install_cpath_pattern, 1, true) then
  package.cpath = package.cpath .. ';' .. install_cpath_pattern
end

time([[Luarocks path setup]], false)
time([[try_loadstring definition]], true)
local function try_loadstring(s, component, name)
  local success, result = pcall(loadstring(s), name, _G.packer_plugins[name])
  if not success then
    vim.schedule(function()
      vim.api.nvim_notify('packer.nvim: Error running ' .. component .. ' for ' .. name .. ': ' .. result, vim.log.levels.ERROR, {})
    end)
  end
  return result
end

time([[try_loadstring definition]], false)
time([[Defining packer_plugins]], true)
_G.packer_plugins = {
  LuaSnip = {
    loaded = true,
    path = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\nvim-data\\site\\pack\\packer\\start\\LuaSnip",
    url = "https://github.com/L3MON4D3/LuaSnip"
  },
  ["cmp-buffer"] = {
    loaded = true,
    path = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\nvim-data\\site\\pack\\packer\\start\\cmp-buffer",
    url = "https://github.com/hrsh7th/cmp-buffer"
  },
  ["cmp-cmdline"] = {
    loaded = true,
    path = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\nvim-data\\site\\pack\\packer\\start\\cmp-cmdline",
    url = "https://github.com/hrsh7th/cmp-cmdline"
  },
  ["cmp-path"] = {
    loaded = true,
    path = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\nvim-data\\site\\pack\\packer\\start\\cmp-path",
    url = "https://github.com/hrsh7th/cmp-path"
  },
  ["friendly-snippets"] = {
    loaded = true,
    path = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\nvim-data\\site\\pack\\packer\\start\\friendly-snippets",
    url = "https://github.com/rafamadriz/friendly-snippets"
  },
  ["nvim-cmp"] = {
    loaded = true,
    path = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\nvim-data\\site\\pack\\packer\\start\\nvim-cmp",
    url = "https://github.com/hrsh7th/nvim-cmp"
  },
  ["packer.nvim"] = {
    loaded = true,
    path = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\nvim-data\\site\\pack\\packer\\start\\packer.nvim",
    url = "https://github.com/wbthomason/packer.nvim"
  },
  ["plenary.nvim"] = {
    loaded = true,
    path = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\nvim-data\\site\\pack\\packer\\start\\plenary.nvim",
    url = "https://github.com/nvim-lua/plenary.nvim"
  },
  ["popup.nvim"] = {
    loaded = true,
    path = "C:\\Users\\danim\\AppData\\Local\\nvim-data\\site\\pack\\packer\\start\\popup.nvim",
    url = "https://github.com/nvim-lua/popup.nvim"
  }
}

time([[Defining packer_plugins]], false)

_G._packer.inside_compile = false
if _G._packer.needs_bufread == true then
  vim.cmd("doautocmd BufRead")
end
_G._packer.needs_bufread = false

if should_profile then save_profiles() end

end)

if not no_errors then
  error_msg = error_msg:gsub('"', '\\"')
  vim.api.nvim_command('echohl ErrorMsg | echom "Error in packer_compiled: '..error_msg..'" | echom "Please check your config for correctness" | echohl None')
end

[dsoto1219]

Update. I deleted and reinstalled Neovim in order to reproduce the issue. Here's what I did:

1. Ensured that there is no:
   • ".cache/" directory in the ~/ directory, and no
   • "nvim/" or "nvim-data/" directory in %localappdata%.
2. Installed Neovim in Powershell 7.3.4 using winget install Neovim.Neovim (I previously uninstalled Neovim using the same command, but replacing install with uninstall).
3. Created nvim/ directory, created an init.lua file inside of it that contains the line require("user.plugins"), and saved that file with :w.
4. Ran the command :Ex, created a lua/ directory, created a user/ directory inside lua/, and inside the user/ directory I created a plugins.lua file.
5. Inside the plugins.lua file, I included the following code:

return require('packer').startup(function(use)
	use 'wbthomason/packer.nvim'
end)

Then ran :wq.
6. In my powershell terminal, I ran git clone https://github.com/wbthomason/packer.nvim "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\nvim-data\site\pack\packer\start\packer.nvim".
7. Going back to my plugins.lua file, I ran :PackerSync, and packer was successfully installed.
8. I modified the plugins.lua file to include use 'lervag/vimtex':

return require('packer').startup(function(use)
	use 'wbthomason/packer.nvim'
        use 'lervag/vimtex'
end)

then saved and sourced the file.
9. I ran :PackerSync. Packer updated, vimtex installed up to 100%, but then neovim crashed and I was met with the pwsh cli.

I have deleted and reinstalled Neovim multiple times before this both to test this issue and for separate issues, and each time--although the tests I performed weren't as structured as this one--vimtex seemed to be the culprit plugin.

I initially posted this as an issue in the vimtex repo, but lervag himself told me to submit the issue here.