Can't set ivy-format-function any more

[Lenbok]

This used to be a single variable, which I had set to ivy-format-function-line, but now it seems that that ivy-format-function has been obseleted, referring me to ivy-format-functions-alist.

The built-in help for that variable tells me it can be customized, but when I try to customize it there is an error, and the value cannot be customized.

If I try to add (setq ivy-format-functions-alist '((t . ivy-format-function-line))) to my init.el, this makes swiper-isearch crash when I enter the first character, with

Error in post-command-hook (ivy--queue-exhibit): (wrong-type-argument sequencep 5)

How can I set the format function back to the ivy-format-function-line that I had previously?

[lmintmate]

I had the same problem too, because I was using ivy-rich, which recommends the change to ivy-format-function-line. The solution was thankfully recently posted by the author of ivy-rich on its README and it is:

(setcdr (assq t ivy-format-functions-alist) #'ivy-format-function-line)

This has solved the issue for me. Hopefully it'll work for you as well.

[Lenbok]

@lmintmate Thanks for that, swiper-isearch now functions again (although I note that it isn't respecting my choice to use ivy-format-function-line, which is perhaps a separate bug)

[lmintmate]

I looked into this (because I hadn't noticed this was happening until you mentioned it), and it seems that swiper-isearch in particular not using ivy-format-function-line is intentional. Specifically, checking the value of ivy-format-functions-alist with C-h v shows the following values (for me at least):

((counsel-compile-env . counsel-compile-env--format-hint)
 (counsel-colors-web . counsel--colors-web-format-function)
 (counsel-colors-emacs . counsel--colors-emacs-format-function)
 (counsel-evil-registers . counsel--yank-pop-format-function)
 (counsel-yank-pop . counsel--yank-pop-format-function)
 (counsel-git-log . counsel--yank-pop-format-function)
 (counsel-faces . counsel--faces-format-function)
 (swiper-isearch . swiper-isearch-format-function)
 (swiper-multi . swiper--all-format-function)
 (counsel-describe-face . counsel--faces-format-function)
 (t . ivy-format-function-line))

This shows that swiper-isearch uses swiper-isearch-format-function instead (and t presumably is what applies to all other commands not specified in the alist's value). Attempting to set swiper-isearch to ivy-format-function-line, even with the setcdr assq method I posted earlier (like so: (setcdr (assq 'swiper-isearch ivy-format-functions-alist) #'ivy-format-function-line)), breaks swiper-isearch unfortunately. I thus took a look at the swiper-isearch-format-function and it seems to use ivy-format-function-default under the hood (see here). I attempted then to create a custom function modelled after this but replacing default with line, and setting swiper-isearch to that instead, but that didn't work either. Most probably the choice to not use format-function-line for swiper-isearch on the part of the author is because swiper-isearch detects and shows when more than one matches exist on the same line and using format-function-line would obscure their highlighting.

[abo-abo]

The built-in help for that variable tells me it can be customized, but when I try to customize it there is an error, and the value cannot be customized.

Thanks, this is fixed now.

Most probably the choice to not use format-function-line for swiper-isearch on the part of the author is because swiper-isearch detects and shows when more than one matches exist on the same line and using format-function-line would obscure their highlighting.

You're right, that was my intention.

[Lenbok]

Thanks for the fix @abo-abo. The current swiper result formatting function gives little visual differentiation of the current line. For example, with swiper-isearch results look like this:

In contrast, counsel-describe-variable (using ivy-format-function-line) has the visual background extending the full window width:

I could make ivy-highlight-face itself stand out more, but how can I make the swiper-isearch background color apply to the full window width?

[Lenbok]

@abo-abo any suggestions for how to get the desired swiper-isearch effect above?

I'm not sure I see how the earlier comment about not allowing a formatting function due to multiple matches on one line is relevant, as counsel-ag highlights multiple matches on one line just fine:

[abo-abo]

@Lenbok Please open a new issue with a fresh description of the problem.