# Plugins
-Micro supports creating plugins with a simple Lua system. Every plugin has a
-main script which is run at startup which should be placed in
-`~/.config/micro/plugins/pluginName/pluginName.lua`.
+Micro supports creating plugins with a simple Lua system. Plugins are
+folders containing Lua files and possibly other source files placed
+in `~/.config/micro/plug`. The plugin directory (within `plug`) should
+contain at least one Lua file and an `info.json` file. The info file
+provides additional information such as the name of the plugin, the
+plugin's website, dependencies, etc... Here is an example info file
+from the go plugin, which has the following file structure:
-There are a number of callback functions which you can create in your
-plugin to run code at times other than startup. The naming scheme is
-`onAction()`. For example a function which is run every time the user saves
-the buffer would be:
+```
+~/.config/micro/plug/go-plugin/
+ go.lua
+ repo.json
+ help/
+ go-plugin.md
+```
+
+The `go.lua` file contains the main code for the plugin, though the
+code may be distributed across multiple Lua files. The `info.json`
+file contains information about the plugin such as the website,
+description, version, and any requirements. Plugins may also
+have additional files which can be added to micro's runtime files,
+of which there are 5 types:
+
+* Colorschemes
+* Syntax files
+* Help files
+* Plugin files
+* Syntax header files
+
+In most cases, a plugin will want to add help files, but in certain
+cases a plugin may also want to add colorschemes or syntax files. It
+is unlikely for a plugin to need to add plugin files at runtime or
+syntax header files. No directory structure is enforced but keeping
+runtime files in their own directories is good practice.
+
+## Lua callbacks
+
+Plugins use Lua but also have access to many functions both from micro
+and from the Go standard library. Many callbacks are also defined which
+are called when certain events happen. Here is the list of callbacks
+which micro defines:
+
+* `init()`: this function should be used for your plugin initialization.
+
+* `onBufferOpen(buf)`: runs when a buffer is opened. The input contains
+ the buffer object.
+
+* `onBufPaneOpen(bufpane)`: runs when a bufpane is opened. The input
+ contains the bufpane object.
+
+* `onAction(bufpane)`: runs when `Action` is triggered by the user, where
+ `Action` is a bindable action (see `> help keybindings`). A bufpane
+ is passed as input and the function should return a boolean defining
+ whether the view should be relocated after this action is performed.
+
+* `preAction(bufpane)`: runs immediately before `Action` is triggered
+ by the user. Returns a boolean which defines whether the action should
+ be canceled.
+
+For example a function which is run every time the user saves the buffer
+would be:
```lua
-function onSave()
+function onSave(bp)
...
return false
end
```
+The `bp` variable is a reference to the bufpane the action is being executed
+within. This is almost always the current bufpane.
+
All available actions are listed in the keybindings section of the help.
-These functions should also return a boolean specifying whether the view
+For callbacks to mouse actions, you are also given the event info:
+
+```lua
+function onMousePress(view, event)
+ local x, y = event:Position()
+
+ return false
+end
+```
+
+These functions should also return a boolean specifying whether the bufpane
should be relocated to the cursor or not after the action is complete.
-Note that these callbacks occur after the action has been completed. If you
-want a callback before the action is executed, use `preAction()`. In this case
-the boolean returned specifies whether or not the action should be executed
-after the lua code completes.
+## Accessing micro functions
+
+Some of micro's internal information is exposed in the form of packages which
+can be imported by Lua plugins. A package can be imported in Lua and a value
+within it can be accessed using the following syntax:
+
+```lua
+local micro = import("micro")
+micro.Log("Hello")
+```
+
+The packages and functions are listed below (in Go type signatures):
+
+* `micro`
+ - `TermMessage(msg interface{}...)`: temporarily close micro and print a
+ message
+
+ - `TermError(filename string, lineNum int, err string)`: temporarily close
+ micro and print an error formatted as `filename, lineNum: err`.
+
+ - `InfoBar()`: return the infobar BufPane object.
+
+ - `Log(msg interface{}...)`: write a message to `log.txt` (requires
+ `-debug` flag, or binary built with `build-dbg`).
+
+ - `SetStatusInfoFn(fn string)`: register the given lua function as
+ accessible from the statusline formatting options
+* `micro/config`
+ - `MakeCommand(name string, action func(bp *BufPane, args[]string),
+ completer buffer.Completer)`:
+ create a command with the given name, and lua callback function when
+ the command is run. A completer may also be given to specify how
+ autocompletion should work with the custom command.
+
+ - `FileComplete`: autocomplete using files in the current directory
+ - `HelpComplete`: autocomplete using names of help documents
+ - `OptionComplete`: autocomplete using names of options
+ - `OptionValueComplete`: autocomplete using names of options, and valid
+ values afterwards
+ - `NoComplete`: no autocompletion suggestions
+
+ - `TryBindKey(k, v string, overwrite bool) (bool, error)`: bind the key
+ `k` to the string `v` in the `bindings.json` file. If `overwrite` is
+ true, this will overwrite any existing binding to key `k`. Returns true
+ if the binding was made, and a possible error (for example writing to
+ `bindings.json` can cause an error).
+
+ - `Reload()`: reload configuration files.
+
+ - `AddRuntimeFileFromMemory(filetype RTFiletype, filename, data string)`:
+ add a runtime file to the `filetype` runtime filetype, with name
+ `filename` and data `data`.
+
+ - `AddRuntimeFilesFromDirectory(plugin string, filetype RTFiletype,
+ directory, pattern string)`:
+ add runtime files for the given plugin with the given RTFiletype from
+ a directory within the plugin root. Only adds files that match the
+ pattern using Go's `filepath.Match`
+
+ - `AddRuntimeFile(plugin string, filetype RTFiletype, filepath string)`:
+ add a given file inside the plugin root directory as a runtime file
+ to the given RTFiletype category.
+
+ - `ListRuntimeFiles(fileType RTFiletype) []string`: returns a list of
+ names of runtime files of the given type.
+
+ - `ReadRuntimeFile(fileType RTFiletype, name string) string`: returns the
+ contents of a given runtime file.
+
+ - `NewRTFiletype() int`: creates a new RTFiletype, and returns its value.
+
+ - `RTColorscheme`: runtime files for colorschemes.
+ - `RTSyntax`: runtime files for syntax files.
+ - `RTHelp`: runtime files for help documents.
+ - `RTPlugin`: runtime files for plugin source code.
+
+ - `RegisterCommonOption(pl string, name string, defaultvalue interface{})`:
+ registers a new option with for the given plugin. The name of the
+ option will be `pl.name`, and will have the given default value. Since
+ this registers a common option, the option will be modifiable on a
+ per-buffer basis, while also having a global value (in the
+ GlobalSettings map).
+
+ - `RegisterGlobalOption(pl string, name string, defaultvalue interface{})`:
+ same as `RegisterCommonOption` but the option cannot be modified
+ locally to each buffer.
+
+ - `GetGlobalOption(name string) interface{}`: returns the value of a
+ given plugin in the `GlobalSettings` map.
+
+ - `SetGlobalOption(option, value string) error`: sets an option to a
+ given value. Same as using the `> set` command. This will parse the
+ value to the actual value type.
----
+ - `SetGlobalOptionNative(option string, value interface{}) error`: sets
+ an option to a given value, where the type of value is the actual
+ type of the value internally.
+* `micro/shell`
+ - `ExecCommand(name string, arg ...string) (string, error)`: runs an
+ executable with the given arguments, and pipes the output (stderr
+ and stdout) of the executable to an internal buffer, which is
+ returned as a string, along with a possible error.
-There are a number of functions and variables that are available to you in
-oder to access the inner workings of micro. Here is a list (the type signatures
-for functions are given using Go's type system):
+ - `RunCommand(input string) (string, error)`: same as `ExecCommand`,
+ except this uses micro's argument parser to parse the arguments from
+ the input. For example `cat 'hello world.txt' file.txt`, will pass
+ two arguments in the `ExecCommand` argument list (quoting arguments
+ will preserve spaces).
-* OS: variable which gives the OS micro is currently running on (this is the same
-as Go's GOOS variable, so `darwin`, `windows`, `linux`, `freebsd`...)
+ - `RunBackgroundShell(input string) (func() string, error)`: returns a
+ function that will run the given shell command and return its output.
-* tabs: a list of all the tabs currently in use
+ - `RunInteractiveShell(input string, wait bool, getOutput bool)
+ (string, error)`:
+ temporarily closes micro and runs the given command in the terminal.
+ If `wait` is true, micro will wait for the user to press enter before
+ returning to text editing. If `getOutput` is true, micro redirect
+ stdout from the command to the returned string.
-* curTab: the index of the current tabs in the tabs list
+ - `JobStart(cmd string, onStdout, onStderr,
+ onExit func(string, []interface{}), userargs ...interface{})
+ *exec.Cmd`:
+ Starts a background job by running the shell on the given command
+ (using `sh -c`). Three callbacks can be provided which will be called
+ when the command generates stdout, stderr, or exits. The userargs will
+ be passed to the callbacks, along with the output as the first
+ argument of the callback.
-* messenger: lets you send messages to the user or create prompts
+ - `JobSpawn(cmd string, cmdArgs []string, onStdout, onStderr,
+ onExit func(string, []interface{}), userargs ...interface{})
+ *exec.Cmd`:
+ same as `JobStart`, except doesn't run the command through the shell
+ and instead takes as inputs the list of arguments.
-* GetOption(name string): returns the value of the requested option
+ - `JobStop(cmd *exec.Cmd)`: kills a job.
+ - `JobSend(cmd *exec.Cmd, data string)`: sends some data to a job's stdin.
-* AddOption(name string, value interface{}): sets the given option with the given
-value (`interface{}` means any type in Go).
+ - `RunTermEmulator(h *BufPane, input string, wait bool, getOutput bool,
+ callback func(out string, userargs []interface{}),
+ userargs []interface{}) error`:
+ starts a terminal emulator from a given BufPane with the input command.
+ If `wait` is true it will wait for the user to exit by pressing enter
+ once the executable has terminated and if `getOutput` is true it will
+ redirect the stdout of the process to a pipe which will be passed to
+ the callback which is a function that takes a string and a list of
+ optional user arguments. This function returns an error on systems
+ where the terminal emulator is not supported.
-* BindKey(key, action string): binds `key` to `action`.
+ - `TermEmuSupported`: true on systems where the terminal emulator is
+ supported and false otherwise. Supported systems:
+ * Linux
+ * MacOS
+ * Dragonfly
+ * OpenBSD
+ * FreeBSD
-* MakeCommand(name, function string): creates a command with `name` which will
-call `function` when executed.
+* `micro/buffer`
+ - `NewMessage(owner string, msg string, start, end, Loc, kind MsgType)
+ *Message`:
+ creates a new message with an owner over a range given by the start
+ and end locations.
-* CurView(): returns the current view
+ - `NewMessageAtLine(owner string, msg string, line int, kindMsgType)
+ *Message`:
+ creates a new message with owner, type and message at a given line.
-* HandleCommand(cmd string): runs the given command
+ - `MTInfo`: info message.
+ - `MTWarning`: warning message.
+ - `MTError` error message.
-* HandleShellCommand(shellCmd string, interactive bool): runs the given shell
-command
+ - `Loc(x, y int) Loc`: creates a new location struct.
-// Used for asynchronous jobs
-* JobStart(cmd string, onStdout, onStderr, onExit string, userargs ...string):
-Starts running the given shell command in the background. `onStdout` `onStderr` and `onExit`
-are callbacks to lua functions which will be called when the given actions happen
-to the background process.
-`userargs` are the arguments which will get passed to the callback functions
+ - `BTDefault`: default buffer type.
+ - `BTLog`: log buffer type.
+ - `BTRaw`: raw buffer type.
+ - `BTInfo`: info buffer type.
-* JobSend(cmd *exec.Cmd, data string): send a string into the stdin of the job process
+ - `NewBuffer(text, path string) *Buffer`: creates a new buffer with the
+ given text at a certain path.
-* JobStop(cmd *exec.Cmd): kill a job
+ - `NewBufferFromFile(path string) (*Buffer, error)`: creates a new
+ buffer by reading from disk at the given path.
+
+ - `ByteOffset(pos Loc, buf *Buffer) int`: returns the byte index of the
+ given position in a buffer.
+
+ - `Log(s string)`: writes a string to the log buffer.
+ - `LogBuf() *Buffer`: returns the log buffer.
+* `micro/util`
+ - `RuneAt(str string, idx int) string`: returns the utf8 rune at a
+ given index within a string.
+ - `GetLeadingWhitespace(s string) string`: returns the leading
+ whitespace of a string.
+ - `IsWordChar(s string) bool`: returns true if the first rune in a
+ string is a word character.
+ - `String(b []byte) string`: converts a byte array to a string.
+ - `RuneStr(r rune) string`: converts a rune to a string.
This may seem like a small list of available functions but some of the objects
-returned by the functions have many methods. `CurView()` returns a view object
-which has all the actions which you can call. For example `CurView():Save()`.
+returned by the functions have many methods. The Lua plugin may access any
+public methods of an object returned by any of the functions above.
+Unfortunately it is not possible to list all the available functions on this
+page. Please go to the internal documentation at
+https://godoc.org/github.com/zyedidia/micro to see the full list of available
+methods. Note that only methods of types that are available to plugins via
+the functions above can be called from a plugin. For an even more detailed
+reference see the source code on Github.
+
+For example, with a BufPane object called `bp`, you could call the `Save`
+function in Lua with `bp:Save()`.
+
+Note that Lua uses the `:` syntax to call a function rather than Go's `.`
+syntax.
+
+```go
+micro.InfoBar().Message()
+```
+
+turns to
+
+```lua
+micro.InfoBar():Message()
+```
+
+## Accessing the Go standard library
+
+It is possible for your lua code to access many of the functions in the Go
+standard library.
+
+Simply import the package you'd like and then you can use it. For example:
+
+```lua
+local ioutil = import("io/ioutil")
+local fmt = import("fmt")
+local micro = import("micro")
+
+local data, err = ioutil.ReadFile("SomeFile.txt")
+
+if err ~= nil then
+ micro.InfoBar():Error("Error reading file: SomeFile.txt")
+else
+ -- Data is returned as an array of bytes
+ -- Using Sprintf will convert it to a string
+ local str = fmt.Sprintf("%s", data)
+
+ -- Do something with the file you just read!
+ -- ...
+end
+```
+
+Here are the packages from the Go standard library that you can access.
+Nearly all functions from these packages are supported. For an exact
+list of which functions are supported you can look through `lua.go`
+(which should be easy to understand).
+
+```
+fmt
+io
+io/ioutil
+net
+math
+math/rand
+os
+runtime
+path
+filepath
+strings
+regexp
+errors
+time
+```
+
+For documentation for each of these functions, see the Go standard
+library documentation at https://golang.org/pkg/ (for the packages
+exposed to micro plugins). The Lua standard library is also available
+to plugins though it is rather small.
+
+## Adding help files, syntax files, or colorschemes in your plugin
+
+You can use the `AddRuntimeFile(name string, type config.RTFiletype,
+ path string)`
+function to add various kinds of files to your plugin. For example, if you'd
+like to add a help topic to your plugin called `test`, you would create a
+`test.md` file, and call the function:
+
+```lua
+config = import("micro/config")
+config.AddRuntimeFile("test", config.RTHelp, "test.md")
+```
+
+Use `AddRuntimeFilesFromDirectory(name, type, dir, pattern)` to add a number of
+files to the runtime. To read the content of a runtime file use
+`ReadRuntimeFile(fileType, name string)` or `ListRuntimeFiles(fileType string)`
+for all runtime files. In addition, there is `AddRuntimeFileFromMemory` which
+adds a runtime file based on a string that may have been constructed at
+runtime.
+
+## Default plugins
+
+There are 6 default plugins that come pre-installed with micro. These are
+
+* `autoclose`: automatically closes brackets, quotes, etc...
+* `comment`: provides automatic commenting for a number of languages
+* `ftoptions`: alters some default options depending on the filetype
+* `linter`: provides extensible linting for many languages
+* `literate`: provides advanced syntax highlighting for the Literate
+ programming tool.
+* `status`: provides some extensions to the status line (integration with
+ Git and more).
+
+See `> help linter`, `> help comment`, and `> help status` for additional
+documentation specific to those plugins.
+
+These are good examples for many use-cases if you are looking to write
+your own plugins.
+
+## Plugin Manager
+
+Micro also has a built in plugin manager which you can invoke with the
+`> plugin ...` command, or in the shell with `micro -plugin ...`.
+
+For the valid commands you can use, see the `command` help topic.
+
+The manager fetches plugins from the channels (which is simply a list of plugin
+metadata) which it knows about. By default, micro only knows about the official
+channel which is located at github.com/micro-editor/plugin-channel but you can
+add your own third-party channels using the `pluginchannels` option and you can
+directly link third-party plugins to allow installation through the plugin
+manager with the `pluginrepos` option.
+
+If you'd like to publish a plugin you've made as an official plugin, you should
+upload your plugin online (to Github preferably) and add a `repo.json` file.
+This file will contain the metadata for your plugin. Here is an example:
+
+```json
+[{
+ "Name": "pluginname",
+ "Description": "Here is a nice concise description of my plugin",
+ "Website": "https://github.com/user/plugin",
+ "Tags": ["python", "linting"],
+ "Versions": [
+ {
+ "Version": "1.0.0",
+ "Url": "https://github.com/user/plugin/archive/v1.0.0.zip",
+ "Require": {
+ "micro": ">=1.0.3"
+ }
+ }
+ ]
+}]
+```
+
+Then open a pull request at github.com/micro-editor/plugin-channel adding a
+link to the raw `repo.json` that is in your plugin repository.
+
+To make updating the plugin work, the first line of your plugins lua code
+should contain the version of the plugin. (Like this: `VERSION = "1.0.0"`)
+Please make sure to use [semver](http://semver.org/) for versioning.
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