Loosing left Click >> Hammerspoon Error : attempt to index a nil value (field 'indicator')

[NylonDiamond]

I get the error below after a while. I lose the ability to left click my mouse. Right click works fine as well as everything else. Weird. Any ideas?

stack traceback: .../jesseskelton/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:73: in local 'fn' ...on.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/fnutils/init.lua:130: in function 'stackline.lib.utils.filter' .../jesseskelton/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:72: in function 'stackline.stackline.stack.getWindowByPoint' ...kelton/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackmanager.lua:118: in function 'stackline.stackline.stackmanager.getClickedWindow' ...seskelton/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackline.lua:26: in function <...seskelton/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackline.lua:22> 2020-09-21 21:47:06: 21:47:06 ERROR: LuaSkin: hs.eventtap callback error: .../jesseskelton/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:73: attempt to index a nil value (field 'indicator')

[AdamWagner]

I've also experienced this, and can only agree: "Weird".

My unsatisfying short-term strategy has been to reload hammerspoon (which I have bound to cmd+alt+r :/

hs.hotkey.bind({'cmd', 'alt'}, 'r', hs.reload)

I always have stackline running, and run into this maybe… once a week?

Thanks for documenting this so we can fix it.

A slightly better (but still pretty random) guess: There's a race condition somewhere; If the indicator isn't rendered before hs.eventtap.new() is called, then we get the error above and and hammerspoon swallows all left clicks.

Question for you @NylonDiamond: do you actually use/want the ability the click indicators? I ask because I've been thinking about configuration options, and if you don't want this feature, it'd be nice if you could turn it off and avoid the rough edges.

[NylonDiamond]

I have to reload a few times per day, unfortunately. I'd be down for toggling the ability to click indicators. I don't use it anyways.

[NylonDiamond]

Did we decide to add the remove or toggle the click indicators functionality? I get this issue like 10x every day. I can't really use Stackline at the moment.

[AdamWagner]

Sorry to hear that @NylonDiamond .

Good news tho – yes – I made good progress on better configurability this weekend, and there's a feature flag to enable / disable clickToFocus:

You can toggle set it off in your init.lua file after calling stackline:init()…

stackline.config:set('features.clickToFocus', true)

…or turn it off via the command line using the ipc interface:

echo ":features.clickToFocus:false` | hs -m stackline-config

I described the changes in more detail here: #33 (comment)

All of these changes are very very fresh (you'd probably be the first to try it). I understand if you're not interested in doing more QA here :-)

I can let you know when it's merged in, tho!

https://github.com/AdamWagner/stackline/tree/feature/configuration

[alextremblay]

I've also experienced this issue.

I don't know if it helps your investigation to know this, but i find that i can regain left-click ability without reloading hammerspoon just by switching to a different space and back.

i dunno, maybe that'll give you some idea of the root cause?

[AdamWagner]

Thanks @alextremblay ! That does give me a better idea of the root cause… or at least it narrows the scope of the hunt for the root cause ;-)

[AdamWagner]

@NylonDiamond just merged in improved configuration updates. Note that, in the new version, Stackline must be initialized in your ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua` file.

init.lua before

stackline = require "stackline.stackline.stackline"

init.lua after

stackline = require "stackline.stackline.stackline"
stackline:init() -- must initialize stackline in your init.lua file!

The changes, of course, allow you to pass in custom config options ;-)

stackline = require "stackline.stackline.stackline"

local myStackline = {
    appearance = { 
      showIcons = false,       -- default is true
    },
    features = {
        clickToFocus = false,  -- default is true
        fzyFrameDetect = {
            fuzzFactor = 25    -- default is 30
        },
    },
}

stackline:init(myStackline)  -- ah yea!          

[alextremblay]

Much like @NylonDiamond, I've noticed the following in the logs when I lose left-click:

stack traceback:
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:73: in local 'fn'
	...on.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/fnutils/init.lua:130: in function 'stackline.lib.utils.filter'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:72: in function 'stackline.stackline.stack.getWindowByPoint'
	...s/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackmanager.lua:115: in function 'stackline.stackline.stackmanager.getClickedWindow'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackline.lua:49: in function </Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackline.lua:47>
2020-10-16 08:28:05: 08:28:05 ERROR:   LuaSkin: hs.eventtap callback error: /Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:73: attempt to index a nil value (field 'indicator')
stack traceback:
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:73: in local 'fn'
	...on.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/fnutils/init.lua:130: in function 'stackline.lib.utils.filter'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:72: in function 'stackline.stackline.stack.getWindowByPoint'
	...s/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackmanager.lua:115: in function 'stackline.stackline.stackmanager.getClickedWindow'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackline.lua:49: in function </Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackline.lua:47>
2020-10-16 08:28:09: 08:28:09 ERROR:   LuaSkin: hs.eventtap callback error: /Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:73: attempt to index a nil value (field 'indicator')
stack traceback:
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:73: in local 'fn'
	...on.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/fnutils/init.lua:130: in function 'stackline.lib.utils.filter'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:72: in function 'stackline.stackline.stack.getWindowByPoint'
	...s/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackmanager.lua:115: in function 'stackline.stackline.stackmanager.getClickedWindow'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackline.lua:49: in function </Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackline.lua:47>

Interestingly, when i switch to a different space and back, I get this in the logs:

2020-10-16 08:28:14: 08:28:14 ERROR:   LuaSkin: hs.application.watcher callback: /Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/window.lua:63: attempt to perform arithmetic on a nil value (field 'stackIdx')
stack traceback:
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/window.lua:63: in function 'stackline.stackline.window.setupIndicator'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/window.lua:173: in function 'stackline.stackline.window.redrawIndicator'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:60: in local 'fn'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:33: in function 'stackline.stackline.stack.eachWin'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stack.lua:58: in function 'stackline.stackline.stack.redrawAllIndicators'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/window.lua:147: in function 'stackline.stackline.window.redrawIndicator'
	/Users/alex/.hammerspoon/stackline/stackline/stackline.lua:114: in function 'stackline.stackline.stackline.redrawWinIndicator'
	...n.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/window/filter.lua:944: in upvalue 'emit'
	...n.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/window/filter.lua:970: in method 'filterEmitEvent'
	...n.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/window/filter.lua:1004: in method 'emitEvent'
	...n.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/window/filter.lua:1096: in method 'unfocused'
	...n.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/window/filter.lua:1285: in method 'deactivated'
	...n.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/window/filter.lua:1270: in function <...n.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/hs/window/filter.lua:1267>
	(...tail calls...)
2020-10-16 08:28:14: num windows changed

and then left click is restored

Also interestingly, this 'trick' only works if i switch spaces on the display that had the active, focused window when the problem started. i guess it has something to do with unloading or unfocusing the focused window or something?

[AdamWagner]

@alextremblay While investigating #46, I found a reliable way to "lose left click": re-initialize stackline while it's already running.

Especially since the location of stackline:init() changed several times in the last couple of releases, I wonder if this may be a factor.

You could either pull the version in this branch: https://github.com/AdamWagner/stackline/tree/fix/nil-windows-in-get-summary or add the following snippet to /stackline/stackline.lua at the top of init():

if stackline.manager then
    -- guard against re-initializtion https://github.com/AdamWagner/stackline/issues/46#issuecomment-723527826
    return print('stackline already initialized')
end