auto-format not running on write

[nemoos0]

Summary

The command :format works fine but even if editor.auto-format is set to true the file is not formatted on :write.
Am I missing something?

Reproduction Steps

Set editor.auto-format = true (it should be the default).

Run this to install the python lsp and all its extensions: pip install "python-lsp-server[all]"

Copy/paste this code in a pyton file and open it

def f(x):
    return x



def g(y):
    return y

A warning should appear: E303 too many blank lines.

Running :write does not format the file, but running :format will.

Helix log

Nothing was written in the log file

Platform

Linux

Terminal Emulator

wezterm 20221119-145034-49b9839f

Helix Version

helix 22.12

[the-mikedavis]

auto-format is not enabled by default for python in the language configuration block:

helix/languages.toml

Lines 472 to 482 in 482cc22

	[[language]]
	name = "python"
	scope = "source.python"
	injection-regex = "python"
	file-types = ["py","pyi","py3","pyw","ptl",".pythonstartup",".pythonrc","SConstruct"]
	shebangs = ["python"]
	roots = []
	comment-token = "#"
	language-server = { command = "pylsp" }
	# TODO: pyls needs utf-8 offsets
	indent = { tab-width = 4, unit = " " }

You can set this in your config to enable formatting through the language server on save:

# ~/.config/helix/languages.toml
[[language]]
name = "python"
auto-format = true

[Mofiqul]

I am having the same issue with typescript

[the-mikedavis]

Typescript also has auto-format disabled by default. You can try:

# ~/.config/helix/languages.toml
[[language]]
name = "typescript"
auto-format = true

You could also configure prettier as an external formatter: https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/wiki/External-binary-formatter-configuration#prettier

[askeladd123]

Shouldn't editor.auto-format = true override the defaults for every language?

[andreaskrath]

@askeladd123 you can find the reasoning here.

[statusunknown418]

having the same issue, even after configuring it with prettier, doing :w doesn't format the file (.tsx)

[[language]]
name = "html"
formatter = { command = 'prettier', args = ["--parser", "html"] }
auto-format = true

[[language]]
name = "json"
formatter = { command = 'prettier', args = ["--parser", "json"] }

[[language]]
name = "css"
formatter = { command = 'prettier', args = ["--parser", "css"] }

[[language]]
name = "javascript"
formatter = { command = 'prettier', args = ["--parser", "typescript"] }
auto-format = true

[[language]]
name = "typescript"
formatter = { command = 'prettier', args = ["--parser", "typescript", "--printWidith", "100"] }
auto-format = true

[David-Else]

Did you look at the WIKI recently? There is a new section added reg .tsx, does it work for you OK? https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/wiki/External-binary-formatter-configuration#prettier

[statusunknown418]

it works!!, however I don't know why it's extremely slow, vscode is able format the same file 10x faster 😢

[peteringram0]

Does anyone have a list of LSP that have auto-format as disabled by default at all?

[tennox]

You can check here:
https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/blob/master/languages.toml

[n8henrie]

This seems very confusing to me.

The docs say that auto-format defaults to true: https://docs.helix-editor.com/configuration.html?highlight=auto-format#editor-section

The default languages.toml does not override this default: (in this case for python):

helix/languages.toml

Line 807 in e76020d

[[language]]

The editor tells me that auto-format is enabled:

:get-option auto-format   
true

And yet :w doesn't format my python file unless I manually put auto-format = true into my Python section of my languages.toml.

[Lisible]

Got bitten by the same issue today. I agree that the documentation is confusing about it.

[fraunos]

IMO no language should have auto-format by default. If someone adds auto-format = true to their config, it should work for all languages straight away, and then you can override it in language.toml.

[askeladd123]

Why was this issue closed? I can't see how this is not a bug.

---

On helix 24.7 I enabled format on write in config.toml:

[editor]
auto-format = true

... but my python code will only format with the :fmt command.

I enable format-on-write to python specifically in languages.toml by adding the line:

[[language]]
name = "python"
auto-format = true

I do :config-reload and :w and the code is formatted. It seems that global auto-format = true is ignored by python. You find the same problems in other languages as well as mentioned above, but languages like rust seem to work as expected.

[kirawi]

This is expected behavior. The global auto-format enables auto-format if the language itself enables auto-format. It's meant to be a global switch for the functionality of auto-format.

[askeladd123]

I understand. Setting the global to false overrides the language specific.

[iskarian]

This is expected behavior. The global auto-format enables auto-format if the language itself enables auto-format. It's meant to be a global switch for the functionality of auto-format.

Perhaps it would be more clear if the global option was instead enable-auto-format, or if a third option "always" was added to auto-format?

[RyotaBannai]

I wanted to use black as a formatter for python, but initially the auto-format didn't run.
After few hours, realized that I need to install python-lsp-black to let it just work.
Maybe this should be mentioned in wiki page as well ?