define_sign_text_highlights blows away user colors

[MarkLodato]

The function highlight#define_sign_text_highlights uses hi link which unconditionally blows away any user colors and instead reverts to the default color scheme. For example the user has

hi GitGutterAdd guifg=#123456 guibg=#789abc

then calling :GitGutterSignsEnable will blow away this change.

I think one potential solution is to:

• rename GitGutterXDefault to GitGutterX
• rename GitGutterX to GitGutterX2
• use GitGutterX2 as the texthl of the signs

[airblade]

Sorry about this.

There are two different ways one can customise the colours:

• highlight link GitGutterAdd Foo
• highlight GitGutterAdd guifg=#123456 guibg=#789abc (your way)

As you point out, enabling the signs blows away any link someone might have configured as per the first way; the colours revert to their defaults.

However you use the second way and this is where it gets puzzling. Specifying custom values means that highlight-links aren't made, so your colours should be preserved – which is indeed the behaviour I get (MacVim, both gui and terminal) even though you don't – weirdness number 1. However I now don't understand why the signs can be successfully toggled off (i.e. made invisible), because that relies on highlight-links – weirdness number 2.

I'm still looking at this; I just wanted to record my thoughts so far.

[airblade]

I think I have a fix. Please could you replace the contents of the function highlight#define_sign_text_highlights with:

  if g:gitgutter_signs
    sign define GitGutterLineAdded           texthl=GitGutterAdd
    sign define GitGutterLineModified        texthl=GitGutterChange
    sign define GitGutterLineRemoved         texthl=GitGutterDelete
    sign define GitGutterLineRemovedFirstLine texthl=GitGutterDelete
    sign define GitGutterLineModifiedRemoved texthl=GitGutterChangeDelete
  else
    sign define GitGutterLineAdded           texthl=GitGutterAddInvisible
    sign define GitGutterLineModified        texthl=GitGutterChangeInvisible
    sign define GitGutterLineRemoved         texthl=GitGutterDeleteInvisible
    sign define GitGutterLineRemovedFirstLine texthl=GitGutterDeleteInvisible
    sign define GitGutterLineModifiedRemoved texthl=GitGutterChangeDeleteInvisible
  endif

[MarkLodato]

I guess my diagnosis was wrong. Your suggest fix does not work for me, and in testing I realized that I have a bigger problem. I had the following in my ~/.vimrc:

Bundle 'airblade/vim-gitgutter'
hi GitGutterAdd        guibg=red guifg=green
hi GitGutterAddLine    guibg=#001040
hi FooBar guifg=red

When I loaded a file, all of those would be ignored:

:hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd xxx links to GitGutterAddDefault
:hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx links to DiffAdd
:hi FooBar
FooBar xxx cleared

I wish I knew why that didn't work, but oh well. I then tried switching to the following:

autocmd ColorScheme * hi GitGutterAdd        guibg=red guifg=green
autocmd ColorScheme * hi GitGutterAddLine    guibg=#001040
autocmd ColorScheme * hi FooBar guifg=red

and now I get:

:hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd   xxx guifg=green guibg=red
                   links to GitGutterAddDefault
:hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx guibg=#001040
                   links to DiffAdd
:hi FooBar
FooBar         xxx cleared       

This happens whether or not I apply your suggested fix. Any ideas?

[airblade]

That is odd. When you specify your own values for a highlight group it should subsequently ignore links.

What version of vim are you on?

Does anything change if you have the plugin enabled from the start (i.e. Without disabling it in your vimrc.)?

P.S. Sorry to be brief; sent from my phone.

On 3 Jun 2014, at 18:25, Mark Lodato notifications@github.com wrote:

I guess my diagnosis was wrong. Your suggest fix does not work for me, and in testing I realized that I have a bigger problem. I had the following in my ~/.vimrc:

Bundle 'airblade/vim-gitgutter'
hi GitGutterAdd guibg=red guifg=green
hi GitGutterAddLine guibg=#001040
hi FooBar guifg=red
When I loaded a file, all of those would be ignored:

:hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd xxx links to GitGutterAddDefault
:hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx links to DiffAdd
:hi FooBar
FooBar xxx cleared
I wish I knew why that didn't work, but oh well. I then tried switching to the following:

autocmd ColorScheme * hi GitGutterAdd guibg=red guifg=green
autocmd ColorScheme * hi GitGutterAddLine guibg=#001040
autocmd ColorScheme * hi FooBar guifg=red
and now I get:

:hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd xxx guifg=green guibg=red
links to GitGutterAddDefault
:hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx guibg=#001040
links to DiffAdd
:hi FooBar
FooBar xxx cleared
This happens whether or not I apply your suggested fix. Any ideas?

—
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[airblade]

One more idea: what happens if you move your highlight definitions above your bundle declaration in your vimrc?

P.S. Sorry to be brief; sent from my phone.

On 3 Jun 2014, at 18:25, Mark Lodato notifications@github.com wrote:

I guess my diagnosis was wrong. Your suggest fix does not work for me, and in testing I realized that I have a bigger problem. I had the following in my ~/.vimrc:

Bundle 'airblade/vim-gitgutter'
hi GitGutterAdd guibg=red guifg=green
hi GitGutterAddLine guibg=#001040
hi FooBar guifg=red
When I loaded a file, all of those would be ignored:

:hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd xxx links to GitGutterAddDefault
:hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx links to DiffAdd
:hi FooBar
FooBar xxx cleared
I wish I knew why that didn't work, but oh well. I then tried switching to the following:

autocmd ColorScheme * hi GitGutterAdd guibg=red guifg=green
autocmd ColorScheme * hi GitGutterAddLine guibg=#001040
autocmd ColorScheme * hi FooBar guifg=red
and now I get:

:hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd xxx guifg=green guibg=red
links to GitGutterAddDefault
:hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx guibg=#001040
links to DiffAdd
:hi FooBar
FooBar xxx cleared
This happens whether or not I apply your suggested fix. Any ideas?

—
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[MarkLodato]

Vim 7.4.316.

I am not disabling it in my ~.vimrc; rather, I am using Vundle to enable it. I tried with the following complete vimrc file (using gvim -u ~/vimrc_tmp):

set nocompatible
filetype off
set rtp+=~/.vim/bundle/vundle/
call vundle#rc()
Bundle 'gmarik/vundle'
Bundle 'airblade/vim-gitgutter'
hi GitGutterAdd        guibg=red guifg=green
hi GitGutterAddLine    guibg=green

and I get the same result. I also tried moving it above the bundle declaration, and also tried using the autocmd. None of that seemed to work.

[airblade]

Hmm. The missing piece of the puzzle is the colorscheme in effect. What does :colo give you?

Your first set of results above could be explained by the colorscheme clearing all highlights, e.g. like this, before it sets up its own.

Having said that, your vimrc defines your highlights after loading the colorscheme. Which makes me wonder whether the colorscheme is being set more often than one might think. Perhaps you could add :autocmd ColorScheme * echo 'colorscheme: ' . g:colors_name to your vimrc so you know when it happens.

I suspect the colorscheme isn't this one because your second set of results above shows that you are loading a colorscheme which uses highlight! ... (note the !): that's the only way to combine attributes with a link. Please could you post the colorscheme online?

Also, the plugin sets up a colorscheme autocommand:

autocmd ColorScheme * call highlight#define_sign_column_highlight() | call highlight#define_highlights()

But this just reestablishes the defaults; it won't change any custom highlights you have set up.

Please could you tell me what :verbose hi GitGutterAdd and :verbose hi GitGutterAddLine give?

[airblade]

BTW I just pushed c9595f2 with the change I suggested above. Even though it doesn't solve your problem (yet) it fixes things for me.

[MarkLodato]

OK, this is weird. At home, with Vim 7.4.52 on Ubuntu 14.04, the gutter colors work but the line highlight colors don't. At work, with Vim 7.4.316 on Ubuntu 12.04, neither works as posted above.

I could have sworn the line highlight colors used to work at home in an earlier version, but I just tried checking out the only other version I used (looking at git reflog) and it didn't work, so I guess I am mistaken.

From home:

:verbose hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd   xxx ctermfg=10 ctermbg=238 guifg=green guibg=#101050
        Last set from ~/.vimrc
:verbose hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx guibg=#001040
                   links to DiffAdd
        Last set from ~/.vim/bundle/vim-gitgutter/autoload/highlight.vim

I'll post my work results when I get in.

By the way, my first set of results was done using the darkblue.vim and vimrc you linked to, though the vimrc has a few custom changes that are not posted on GitHub. My second set of results was done using an independent vimrc using the -e flag. The results in this post are done using the exact configuration from my dotfiles repo, with the latest version of gitgutter.vim.

[airblade]

Looking at your results from home, it's peculiar that things work properly for GitGutterAdd but not for GitGutterAddLine. They should be treated in exactly the same way.

Furthermore the only way (that I know of) to have a highlight group with both custom values and a link is this:

hi Foo guibg=#001040
hi! link Foo DiffAdd

But neither your colorscheme nor your vimrc uses hi!.

By any chance do you have something relevant in ~/.vim/rc-private.vim?

[MarkLodato]

At home, that file doesn't exist. At work, there is nothing that should affect it, and the following is what I get even if I remove that file:

:verbose hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd   xxx links to GitGutterAddDefault
        Last set from ~/.vim/bundle/vim-gitgutter/autoload/highlight.vim
:verbose hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx links to DiffAdd
        Last set from ~/.vim/bundle/vim-gitgutter/autoload/highlight.vim  

If I blow away my ~/.vimrc and ~/.vim by doing:

▶ cd
▶ mv .vimrc vimrc
▶ mv .vim vim
▶ cat > .vimrc <<EOF
hi GitGutterAdd        guibg=red guifg=green
hi GitGutterAddLine    guibg=green
EOF
▶ mkdir .vim
▶ cp -r vim/bundle/vim-gitgutter/{autoload,plugin} .vim

I get a similar result:

:verbose hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd   xxx guifg=green guibg=red
                   links to GitGutterAddDefault
:verbose hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx guibg=green
                   links to DiffAdd
        Last set from ~/.vim/autoload/highlight.vim

I can also confirm that there is nothing in /etc that should be affecting it. (Just runtime! debian.vim.)

[MarkLodato]

Oh, and I get the same result in both vim and gvim.

[airblade]

When I do the exact same "blow away" steps as you, I get in vim:

:verbose hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd   xxx guifg=green guibg=red
        Last set from ~/.vimrc
:verbose hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx guibg=green
        Last set from ~/.vimrc

– which is what I expect.

In mvim:

:verbose hi GitGutterAdd
GitGutterAdd   xxx links to GitGutterAddDefault
        Last set from ~/.vim/autoload/highlight.vim
:verbose hi GitGutterAddLine
GitGutterAddLine xxx links to DiffAdd
        Last set from ~/.vim/autoload/highlight.vim

– not what I expect.

And neither of these matches what you get.

[airblade]

Update on mvim: it turns out MacVim behaves the same as my vim when I add let macvim_skip_colorscheme=1 to my .vimrc. This prevents MacVim automatically changing the colorscheme to its own at startup, which clears out custom highlights.

So that leaves the question: why does your system maintain the default highlight links?

[airblade]

Does this work in your vimrc?

hi clear GitGutterAdd
hi GitGutterAdd guibg=red guifg=green

hi clear GitGutterAddLine
hi GitGutterAddLine guibg=green