Can not open file on first <cr> in lazy load.

[mtfcd]

condition: Using lazy.nvim and lazy load neotree. use nvim open a directory like this nvim .
behavior: The first time toggle neotree, and the first time open a file, it will not show the file, only a empty split window. The second time open a file it will show the file normally.

[barreiroleo]

I'm pretty sure it's an old bug. When you open a file after starting nvim in a directory, you get the following error;

[Neo-tree ERROR] Error opening file: vim/_editor.lua:0: nvim_exec2(): Vim(edit):E201: *ReadPre autocommands must not change current buffer

Sorry if the error doesn't match, I've had to search and translate

You have to close the buffer and reopen it to get the correct content.

[oscarteg]

I am experiencing the same bug. Not sure why this happens. Is there a fix? @barreiroleo @mtfcd

[barreiroleo]

Not that I am aware of. The most usable thing I found is to not use lazy loading and set "hijack_netrw_behavior" to "open_current" (read the docs), which is quite weird in some workflow. Neotree toggle mapping causes duplicate file explorer for example.
I wish the "open_default" to work fine. I tried to find a relevant autocmd in the source but I was unlucky.

[miversen33]

I am not able to recreate this issue. Could someone provide a minimal lazy config that I can use to reproduce this?

Below is a very simple lazy config that allows me to open a directory with nvim . and open a file by pressing <CR>

        {
            "nvim-neo-tree/neo-tree.nvim", -- File Explorer
            branch = "v2.x",
            dependencies = {
                "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",
                "kyazdani42/nvim-web-devicons", -- not strictly required, but recommended
                "MunifTanjim/nui.nvim",
            },
            config = {}
        }

[lcrownover]

I've been experiencing this bug since updating neo-tree a week or so ago. It was not happening before, and my configs did not change.

My config for reference:

return {
  "nvim-neo-tree/neo-tree.nvim",
  dependencies = {
    "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",
    "nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons",
    "MunifTanjim/nui.nvim",
  },
  keys = {
    { "<C-b>",     ":Neotree toggle<CR>",            silent = true },
    { "<leader>b", ":Neotree filesystem reveal<CR>", silent = true },
  },
  config = function()
    require("neo-tree").setup({
      close_if_last_window = true,
      window = {
        position = "right",
      },
      filesystem = {
        filtered_items = {
          hide_dotfiles = false,
          hide_gitignored = false,
          hide_by_name = {
            "node_modules",
          },
          never_show = {
            ".DS_Store",
            "thumbs.db",
          },
        },
      },
      event_handlers = {
        {
          event = "file_opened",
          handler = function()
            --auto close
            require("neo-tree").close_all()
          end,
        },
      },
    })
  end,
}

[miversen33]

Thank you! I will see if I can reproduce the issue with your config

[agoodshort]

Use :e after receiving the error message to load the buffer.

[lcrownover]

I know this isn't really a fix to the overall issue but setting lazy = false for this plugin is a workaround.

[miversen33]

I'm not dead, just haven't gotten around to spending meaningful time on this lol. Hopefully this weekend I can poke this and see if I can figure out whats up.

[miversen33]

Ok so some quick testing, I am still unable to replicate the behavior described in this issue :(

Quick video showing what I tried

neo-tree.mp4

The config used

local lazypath = "/tmp/nvim_mods"

if not vim.loop.fs_stat(lazypath) then
  vim.fn.system({
    "git",
    "clone",
    "--filter=blob:none",
    "https://github.com/folke/lazy.nvim.git",
    "--branch=stable", -- latest stable release
    lazypath,
  })
end
vim.opt.rtp:prepend(lazypath)
require("lazy").setup({
  "nvim-neo-tree/neo-tree.nvim",
  lazy = true,
  dependencies = {
    "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim",
    "nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons",
    "MunifTanjim/nui.nvim",
  },
  keys = {
    { "<C-f>",     ":Neotree toggle<CR>",            silent = true },
    { "<leader>b", ":Neotree filesystem reveal<CR>", silent = true },
  },
  cmd = "Neotree",
  config = function()
    require("neo-tree").setup({
      close_if_last_window = true,
      window = {
        position = "right",
      },
      filesystem = {
        filtered_items = {
          hide_dotfiles = false,
          hide_gitignored = false,
          hide_by_name = {
            "node_modules",
          },
          never_show = {
            ".DS_Store",
            "thumbs.db",
          },
        },
      },
      event_handlers = {
        {
          event = "file_opened",
          handler = function()
            --auto close
            require("neo-tree").close_all()
          end,
        },
      },
    })
  end,
})

And the neovim version info

NVIM v0.9.0
Build type: Release
LuaJIT 2.1.0-beta3

   system vimrc file: "$VIM/sysinit.vim"
  fall-back for $VIM: "/share/nvim"

Run :checkhealth for more info

I unfortunately don't really know a way forward here as I cannot recreate the problem. It is worth noting that opening a directory with hijack_netrw enabled while also lazy loading Neo-tree will result in netrw "working" initially (as neo-tree is not loaded yet due to being lazy loaded). But that is not terribly relevant to the issue at hand. Can someone provide me a fully lazy config that can reliably (IE, when ran with no plugins installed beforehand, and the --clean flag attached) reproduce the issue? I used the one provided by @lcrownover but it didn't get me in the same state others are seeing.

[mtfcd]

@miversen33 thanks very much for your response. I disabled netrw at start of my init.lua:

vim.g.loaded_netrw = 1
vim.g.loaded_netrwPlugin = 1

I tried it use your config, the behavior is gone. But netrw will show up when I use nvim to open a directory (since it's not disabled). When I added these two lines, the problem will show up.

[pysan3]

Alright, found the reason, not able to fix it yet.

First of all, this happens when neo-tree IS lazy loaded and nvim is opened with nvim . or nvim /path/to/dir/ or something like that.

When nvim in launched with a dir path, or when :e /path/to/dir, a dir buffer which is an empty buffer is opened to display the content of the directory.

After running Neotree toggle, lazy.nvim loads neo-tree for the first time. At that moment, neo-tree opens a new buffer to display itself and creates an autocmd for BufEnter to 1. check if the current buffer is a dir, and 2. if it is a dir, force load neo-tree and hijack that buffer.

First neo-tree popup works just like usual but when you try to open a file there, first, neo-tree switches to the alternating buffer "#" and then try to open that selected file in that buffer.
EDIT: This is wrong. It simply runs :e file-you-want-to-open.txt and opens a new buffer I guess. And now I'm not quite sure why the BufEnter of the old dir buffer is executed...
EDITEND

However, at the moment neo-tree switches the focus to the alternating buffer, the autocmd that was set before kicks in and since the blank buffer is actually the one opened by nvim . (which is actually not a blank buffer but is a dir buffer displayed by nothing if you disable netrw), a different neo-tree is loaded into that buffer to try to hijack it.

Since neo-tree has a mechanism to not open multiple instances in the same tab (which is indeed useful when switching sources etc), new neo-tree kills the old one trying to open the file and that leads to the very confusing behavior.

This is like a very very edge case and it's kinda funny cuz all of the neo-tree (good) functionalities just turn out the wrong way and crushes itself.

The core problem here is that neo-tree is lazy loaded and that the creation of the autocmd happens after the creating of the dir buffer for nvim . and cannot hijack that single case.

I'll look into the code to implement a guard for this case but until that I'd advise to just lazy = false or never nvim . in the first place.