# 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(view)`. For
-example a function which is run every time the user saves the buffer would be:
-
-```lua
-function onSave(view)
- ...
- return false
-end
```
-
-The `view` variable is a reference to the view the action is being executed on.
-This is almost always the current view, which you can get with `CurView()` as
-well.
-
-All available actions are listed in the keybindings section of the help.
-
-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
+~/.config/micro/plug/go-plugin/
+ go.lua
+ info.json
+ help/
+ go-plugin.md
```
-These functions should also return a boolean specifying whether the view 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.
-
-Another useful callback to know about which is not an action is
-`onViewOpen(view)` which is called whenever a new view is opened and the new
-view is passed in. This is useful for setting local options based on the
-filetype, for example turning off `tabstospaces` only for Go files when they are
-opened.
+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
-There are a number of functions and variables that are available to you in order
-to access the inner workings of micro. Here is a list (the type signatures for
-functions are given using Go's type system):
+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.
-* `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`...)
+# Info file
-* `configDir`: contains the path to the micro configuration files
+The `info.json` for the Go plugin is the following:
-* `tabs`: a list of all the tabs currently in use
-
-* `curTab`: the index of the current tabs in the tabs list
-
-* `messenger`: lets you send messages to the user or create prompts
-
-* `NewBuffer(text, path string) *Buffer`: creates a new buffer from a given
- reader with a given path
-
-* `GetLeadingWhitespace() bool`: returns the leading whitespace of the given
- string
-
-* `IsWordChar(str string) bool`: returns whether or not the string is a 'word
- character'
-
-* `RuneStr(r rune) string`: returns a string containing the given rune
+```
+{
+ "name": "go",
+ "description": "Go formatting and tool support",
+ "website": "https://github.com/micro-editor/go-plugin",
+ "install": "https://github.com/micro-editor/go-plugin",
+ "version": "1.0.0",
+ "require": [
+ "micro >= 2.0.0"
+ ]
+}
+```
-* `Loc(x, y int) Loc`: returns a new `Loc` struct
+All fields are simply interpreted as strings, so the version does not
+need to be a semantic version, and the dependencies are also only
+meant to be parsed by humans. The name should be an identifier, and
+the website should point to a valid website. The install field should
+provide info about installing the plugin, or point to a website that
+provides information.
-* `WorkingDirectory() string`: returns a rooted path name to the current working
- directory
+Note that the name of the plugin is defined by the name field in
+the `info.json` and not by the installation path. Some functions micro
+exposes to plugins require passing the name of the plugin.
-* `JoinPaths(dir... string) string`: combines multiple directories to a full
- path
+## Lua callbacks
-* `DirectoryName(path string)`: returns all but the last element of path,
- typically the path's directory
+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:
-* `GetOption(name string)`: returns the value of the requested option
+* `init()`: this function should be used for your plugin initialization.
-* `AddOption(name string, value interface{})`: sets the given option with the
- given value (`interface{}` means any type in Go)
+* `onBufferOpen(buf)`: runs when a buffer is opened. The input contains
+ the buffer object.
-* `SetOption(option, value string)`: sets the given option to the value. This
- will set the option globally, unless it is a local only option.
+* `onBufPaneOpen(bufpane)`: runs when a bufpane is opened. The input
+ contains the bufpane object.
-* `SetLocalOption(option, value string, view *View)`: sets the given option to
- the value locally in the given buffer
+* `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.
-* `BindKey(key, action string)`: binds `key` to `action`
+* `preAction(bufpane)`: runs immediately before `Action` is triggered
+ by the user. Returns a boolean which defines whether the action should
+ be canceled.
-* `MakeCommand(name, function string, completions ...Completion)`:
- creates a command with `name` which will call `function` when executed. Use 0
- for completions to get NoCompletion.
+For example a function which is run every time the user saves the buffer
+would be:
-* `MakeCompletion(function string)`:
- creates a `Completion` to use with `MakeCommand`
+```lua
+function onSave(bp)
+ ...
+ return false
+end
+```
-* `CurView()`: returns the current view
+The `bp` variable is a reference to the bufpane the action is being executed
+within. This is almost always the current bufpane.
-* `HandleCommand(cmd string)`: runs the given command
+All available actions are listed in the keybindings section of the help.
-* `HandleShellCommand(shellCmd string, interactive bool, waitToClose bool)`:
- runs the given shell command. The `interactive` bool specifies whether the
- command should run in the background. The `waitToClose` bool only applies if
- `interactive` is true and means that it should wait before returning to the
- editor.
+For callbacks to mouse actions, you are also given the event info:
-* `ToCharPos(loc Loc, buf *Buffer) int`: returns the character position of a
- given x, y location
+```lua
+function onMousePress(view, event)
+ local x, y = event:Position()
-* `Reload`: (Re)load everything
+ return false
+end
+```
-* `ByteOffset(loc Loc, buf *Buffer) int`: exactly like `ToCharPos` except it it
- counts bytes instead of runes
+These functions should also return a boolean specifying whether the bufpane
+should be relocated to the cursor or not after the action is complete.
-* `JobSpawn(cmdName string, cmdArgs []string, onStdout, onStderr, onExit string, userargs ...string)`:
- Starts running the given process 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
+## Accessing micro functions
-* `JobStart(cmd string, onStdout, onStderr, onExit string, userargs ...string)`:
- Starts running the given shell command in the background. Note that the
- command execute is first parsed by a shell when using this command. It is
- executed with `sh -c`.
+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:
-* `JobSend(cmd *exec.Cmd, data string)`: send a string into the stdin of the job
- process
+```lua
+local micro = import("micro")
+micro.Log("Hello")
+```
-* `JobStop(cmd *exec.Cmd)`: kill a job
+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.
+
+ - `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).
+
+ - `RunBackgroundShell(input string) (func() string, error)`: returns a
+ function that will run the given shell command and return its output.
+
+ - `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.
+
+ - `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.
+
+ - `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.
+
+ - `JobStop(cmd *exec.Cmd)`: kills a job.
+ - `JobSend(cmd *exec.Cmd, data string)`: sends some data to a job's stdin.
+
+ - `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.
+
+ - `TermEmuSupported`: true on systems where the terminal emulator is
+ supported and false otherwise. Supported systems:
+ * Linux
+ * MacOS
+ * Dragonfly
+ * OpenBSD
+ * FreeBSD
+
+* `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.
+
+ - `NewMessageAtLine(owner string, msg string, line int, kindMsgType)
+ *Message`:
+ creates a new message with owner, type and message at a given line.
+
+ - `MTInfo`: info message.
+ - `MTWarning`: warning message.
+ - `MTError` error message.
+
+ - `Loc(x, y int) Loc`: creates a new location struct.
+
+ - `BTDefault`: default buffer type.
+ - `BTLog`: log buffer type.
+ - `BTRaw`: raw buffer type.
+ - `BTInfo`: info buffer type.
+
+ - `NewBuffer(text, path string) *Buffer`: creates a new buffer with the
+ given text at a certain path.
+
+ - `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(false)`. You can see the full list of possible actions in the
-keybindings help topic. The boolean on all the actions indicates whether or not
-the lua callbacks should be run. I would recommend generally sticking to false
-when making a plugin to avoid recursive problems, for example if you call
-`CurView():Save(true)` in `onSave()`. Just use `CurView():Save(false)` so that
-it won't call `onSave()` again.
+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.
-Using the view object, you can also access the buffer associated with that view
-by using `CurView().Buf`, which lets you access the `FileType`, `Path`,
-`Name`...
+For example, with a BufPane object called `bp`, you could call the `Save`
+function in Lua with `bp:Save()`.
-The possible methods which you can call using the `messenger` variable are:
-
-* `messenger.Message(msg ...interface{})`
-* `messenger.Error(msg ...interface{})`
-* `messenger.YesNoPrompt(prompt string) (bool,bool)`
-* `messenger.Prompt(prompt, historyType string, completionType Completion) (string, bool)`
-* `messenger.AddLog(msg ...interface{})`
-
-#### Note
-
-Go function signatures use `.` and lua uses `:` so
+Note that Lua uses the `:` syntax to call a function rather than Go's `.`
+syntax.
```go
-messenger.Message()
+micro.InfoBar().Message()
```
turns to
```lua
-messenger:Message()
-```
-
-If you want a standard prompt, just use
-
-```lua
-messenger:Prompt(prompt, "", 0)
+micro.InfoBar():Message()
```
-Debug or logging your plugin can be done with below lua example code.
-
-```lua
-messenger:AddLog("Message goes here ",pluginVariableToPrintHere)
-```
-
-In Micro to see your plugin logging output press `CtrlE` then type `log`, a
-logging window will open and any logging sent from your plugin will be displayed
-here.
-
-
## Accessing the Go standard library
It is possible for your lua code to access many of the functions in the Go
Simply import the package you'd like and then you can use it. For example:
```lua
-local ioutil = import("ioutil")
+local ioutil = import("io/ioutil")
local fmt = import("fmt")
+local micro = import("micro")
local data, err = ioutil.ReadFile("SomeFile.txt")
if err ~= nil then
- messenger:Error("Error reading file: SomeFile.txt")
+ 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
end
```
-For a full list of which packages and functions from the standard library you
-can access, look at `lua.go` in the source code (it shouldn't be too hard to
-look through).
+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, type, 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:
+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
-AddRuntimeFile("test", "help", "test.md")
+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.
-
-
-## Autocomplete command arguments
-
-See this example to learn how to use `MakeCompletion` and `MakeCommand`
-
-```lua
-local function StartsWith(String,Start)
- String = String:upper()
- Start = Start:upper()
- return string.sub(String,1,string.len(Start))==Start
-end
+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.
-function complete(input)
- local allCompletions = {"Hello", "World", "Foo", "Bar"}
- local result = {}
-
- for i,v in pairs(allCompletions) do
- if StartsWith(v, input) then
- table.insert(result, v)
- end
- end
- return result
-end
-
-function foo(arg)
- messenger:Message(arg)
-end
-
-MakeCommand("foo", "example.foo", MakeCompletion("example.complete"))
-```
+## Default plugins
+There are 6 default plugins that come pre-installed with micro. These are
-## Default plugins
+* `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).
-For examples of plugins, see the default `autoclose` and `linter` plugins
-(stored in the normal micro core repo under `runtime/plugins`) as well as any
-plugins that are stored in the official channel
-[here](https://github.com/micro-editor/plugin-channel).
+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.
+`> plugin ...` command, or in the shell with `micro -plugin ...`.
For the valid commands you can use, see the `command` help topic.
[{
"Name": "pluginname",
"Description": "Here is a nice concise description of my plugin",
+ "Website": "https://github.com/user/plugin",
"Tags": ["python", "linting"],
"Versions": [
{
}]
```
-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.
+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.