Synctex doesn't work properly on Mac (Zathura or Skim)

[rltyty]

Description

Nvim + vimtex + Zathura once worked fine in my mac. However recently, after I upgraded system and switch to Nvim + lazy.nvim, they don't work properly now. I tried not to use lazy features for Vimtex after I read the help doc. I also tried to use minimal.vim, the problem still exists.

The current status is after I type <leader>ll or <leader>lv, it can open Zathura/Skim to display the PDF. But the sync doesn't work as expected.

For Zathura (which I mainly use), it reports "VimTex: Viewer cannot find Zathura window ID!" I already read related issues in history. Basically, the issue still exists, which is xdotool can find no id of zathura. So I switch the method to "zathura_simple", then the error disappears as expected. Now here are the sync problems:

1. Forward search is not automatic/continuous. I remember the viewer (Zathura) was able to focus on the point where the cursor was at in the tex file being edited. However, now, I have to manually trigger the forward search by type <leader>lv every time. I mean it can sync, but not continuously/automatically.

2. Inverse search doesn't work at all. the cursor is not able to relocate in the editor after I select/click the text here and there in the pdf viewer Zathura.

If you could shed some light on this, I would really appreciate. Thanks in advance.

Steps to reproduce

:checkhealth vimtex

VimTeX ~
- OK Vim version should have full support!
- OK Zathura should work properly!
- OK Compiler should work!

nvim Lua configuration

{
    'lervag/vimtex',
    config = function()
        vg.vimtex_view_method = 'zathura_simple'
        -- vg.vimtex_view_method = 'skim'
    end,
    enabled = vg.vimrclevel > 3
},

Expected behavior

No response

Actual behavior

No response

Do you use a latexmkrc file?

~/.latexmkrc

push @generated_exts, "cb";
push @generated_exts, "cb2";
push @generated_exts, "spl";
push @generated_exts, "nav";
push @generated_exts, "snm";
push @generated_exts, "tdo";
push @generated_exts, "nmo";
push @generated_exts, "brf";
push @generated_exts, "nlg";
push @generated_exts, "nlo";
push @generated_exts, "nls";
push @generated_exts, "synctex.gz";
push @generated_exts, "run.xml";

$pdflatex = "xelatex -synctex=1 %O %S";
$pdf_mode = 5;
$dvi_mode = 0;
$postscript_mode = 0;

VimtexInfo

System info:
  OS: macOS 12.7.2 (21G1974)
  Vim version: NVIM v0.9.5
  Has clientserver: true
  Servername: /var/folders/2k/r2yhqxdj0d54j8k7_wp94xj80000gn/T/nvim.rabbit/w5G7fI/nvim.20856.0

VimTeX project: cv
  base: cv.tex
  root: /Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv
  tex: /Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv/cv.tex
  main parser: current file verified
  document class: article
  packages: atbegshi atbegshi-ltx atveryend atveryend-ltx auxhook bigintcalc bitset enumitem etexcmds etoolbox expl3 fontenc fontspec fontspec-xetex geometry gettitlestring hycolor hyperref iftex ifvtex infwarerr intcalc keyval kvdefinekeys kvoptions kvsetkeys letltxmacro ltxcmds nameref parskip pdfescape pdftexcmds refcount rerunfilecheck stringenc uniquecounter url xcolor xparse
  compiler: latexmk
    engine: -xelatex
    options:
      -verbose
      -file-line-error
      -synctex=1
      -interaction=nonstopmode
    callback: 1
    continuous: 1
    executable: latexmk
    job: 
      jobid: 7
      output: /var/folders/2k/r2yhqxdj0d54j8k7_wp94xj80000gn/T/nvim.rabbit/w5G7fI/0
      cmd: max_print_line=2000 latexmk -verbose -file-line-error -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode  -xelatex -pvc -pvctimeout- -view=none -e '$compiling_cmd = ($compiling_cmd ? $compiling_cmd . " ; " : "") . "echo vimtex_compiler_callback_compiling"' -e '$success_cmd = ($success_cmd ? $success_cmd . " ; " : "") . "echo vimtex_compiler_callback_success"' -e '$failure_cmd = ($failure_cmd ? $failure_cmd . " ; " : "") . "echo vimtex_compiler_callback_failure"' 'cv.tex'
      pid: 20860
  viewer: Zathura
    cmd_start: zathura  -x "/Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim --headless -c \"VimtexInverseSearch %{line} '%{input}'\"" --synctex-forward 57:8:'/Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv/cv.tex' 'cv.pdf'&
  qf method: LaTeX logfile

[lervag]

I tried not to use lazy features for Vimtex after I read the help doc.

To be honest, my current thought is that you are still lazy loading VimTeX. So let's start by looking at that.

I also tried to use minimal.vim, the problem still exists.

Which minimal.vim? If you can reproduce your problem with a proper minimal.vim file, then there is no reason to discuss your real configuration. Instead, you should post the minimal config and the steps you use to reproduce.

1. Forward search …
2. Inverse search doesn't work at all. …

This sure sounds like a lazy loading issue...

{
    'lervag/vimtex',
    config = function()
        vg.vimtex_view_method = 'zathura_simple'
        -- vg.vimtex_view_method = 'skim'
    end,
    enabled = vg.vimrclevel > 3
},

Please change config to init. Also, what's the point of enabled = vg.vimrclevel > 3?

And, important: Do you perhaps have a global lazy load option for lazy.nvim enabled? In other words, what is your configuration of lazy.nvim itself?

What happens if you run this from a terminal?

/Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim --headless -c "VimtexInverseSearch 25 '/Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv/cv.tex'"

[rltyty]

... you are still lazy loading VimTeX

"I tried not to use lazy features" actually means I removed my personal key map which had been set using keys attribute, which caused almost all Vimtex commands to disappear, since the keys in lazy.nvim plugin spec is a trigger of lazy load.

I don't think my current situation is about lazy load, because :Lazy shows Vimtex is loaded after start.

I also tried to switch config to init, the problems are still there.

what's the point of enabled = vg.vimrclevel > 3

vim.g.vimrclevel is my personal Vim running level option, 5(default). This is an old simple way to control plugin load in different situations.

Do you perhaps have a global lazy load option for lazy.nvim enabled?

No. Just default settings.

Which minimal.vim?

The one suggested in the Issue template.

set nocompatible
let &runtimepath  = '~/.vim/bundle/vimtex,' . &runtimepath
let &runtimepath .= ',~/.vim/bundle/vimtex/after'
filetype plugin indent on
syntax enable
" Add relevant options and VimTeX configuration below.

let g:vimtex_view_method = 'zathura_simple'

The problems can still reproduce when I run

vim -u minimal.vim /Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv/cv.tex

What happens if you run this from a terminal?

/Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim --headless -c "VimtexInverseSearch 25 '/Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv/cv.tex'"

If open the tex file at first

/Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim /Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv/cv.tex

then run the above command in another terminal, the command returns 0, and the cursor jumps to L25 in the Vim buffer in the first terminal. With minimal.vim, it behaves the same way.

P.S., there is a LaTeX Font Warning during compilation (<leader>ll) I forgot to mention in my OP. I didn't think it matters.

Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv/cv.tex|| LaTeX Font Warning: Font shape TU/KaitiSC(0)/b/n' undefined using TU/KaitiSC(0)/m/n' instead on input line 24.

[lervag]

I don't think my current situation is about lazy load, because :Lazy shows Vimtex is loaded after start.

Ok, good!

I also tried to switch config to init, the problems are still there.

Ok; but notice that you should still keep this change. VimTeX assumes that the options are defined before you load it, and I've found that config sometimes messes with this assumption.

Which minimal.vim?

The one suggested in the Issue template.

set nocompatible
let &runtimepath  = '~/.vim/bundle/vimtex,' . &runtimepath
let &runtimepath .= ',~/.vim/bundle/vimtex/after'
filetype plugin indent on
syntax enable
" Add relevant options and VimTeX configuration below.

let g:vimtex_view_method = 'zathura_simple'

Ok; can we continue the thread using this minimal.vim?

The problems can still reproduce when I run

vim -u minimal.vim /Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv/cv.tex

Ok, so the problem persists regardless of whether you are using Vim or neovim? Notice, though, you should use vim --clean -u minimal.vim ...; the --clean ensures that you don't load any config from your personal runtimepath. Same if you use nvim.

What happens if you run this from a terminal?
/Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim --headless -c "VimtexInverseSearch 25 '/Users/rabbit/Documents/sci/cv/cv.tex'"

The cursor jumps to L25 in the Vim buffer.

Good, that asserts that you are not lazy loading.

P.S., there is a LaTeX Font Warning during compilation (<leader>ll) I forgot to mention in my OP. I didn't think it matters.

You are right, this is not relevant.

---

Now, I believe the next step for going in depth here is to have a proper LaTeX
test file. I.e., instead of your cv.tex, create a minimal LaTeX file such as

\documentclass{minimal}
\begin{document}
Hello World!

\newpage

Hello Moon!
\end{document}

Given minimal.vim and mwe.tex, you can do nvim --clean -u minimal.vim mwe.tex, then:

1. \ll to start compilation - does it work as expected? Do the viewer open automatically?

2. Test \lv - does it perform the forward sync?

3. Does inverse sync work? (I assume no, as we didn't really change anything yet.)

[lervag]

Also, just to be fully sure, could you comment out the config in your .latexmkrc file while we test things?

[rltyty]

After remove ~/.latexmkrc, and run nvim --clean -u minimal.vim mwe.tex

1. \ll compilation works as expected and opens the viewer automatically.
2. If put the cursor on "Hello Moon!" and then \lv, it performs forward sync, Zathura scroll to the next page with "Hello Moon!" line highlighted.
3. Inverse sync doesn't work.

[lervag]

Ok, so things work except inverse sync. Can you post the output of :VimtexInfo after step 2? There's a command there that I want you to run from a terminal to see if there are error messages. Something like this:

zathura  -x "nvim --headless -c \"VimtexInverseSearch %{line} '%{input}'\"" --synctex-forward 57:8:'mwe.tex' 'mwe.pdf'&

Now, if you run that command (modified to match what you find in :VimtexInfo) after you've closed the initial window - what happens if you do inverse sync?

[rltyty]

System info:
  OS: macOS 12.7.2 (21G1974)
  Vim version: NVIM v0.9.5
  Has clientserver: true
  Servername: /var/folders/2k/r2yhqxdj0d54j8k7_wp94xj80000gn/T/nvim.rabbit/ehpwhg/nvim.26189.0

VimTeX project: mwe
  base: mwe.tex
  root: /Users/rabbit/tmp/test
  tex: /Users/rabbit/tmp/test/mwe.tex
  main parser: current file verified
  document class: minimal
  compiler: latexmk
    engine: -pdf
    options:
      -verbose
      -file-line-error
      -synctex=1
      -interaction=nonstopmode
    callback: 1
    continuous: 1
    executable: latexmk
    job: 
      jobid: 5
      output: /var/folders/2k/r2yhqxdj0d54j8k7_wp94xj80000gn/T/nvim.rabbit/ehpwhg/0
      cmd: max_print_line=2000 latexmk -verbose -file-line-error -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode  -pdf -pvc -pvctimeout- -view=none -e '$compiling_cmd = ($compiling_cmd ? $compiling_cmd . " ; " : "") . "echo vimtex_compiler_callback_compiling"' -e '$success_cmd = ($success_cmd ? $success_cmd . " ; " : "") . "echo vimtex_compiler_callback_success"' -e '$failure_cmd = ($failure_cmd ? $failure_cmd . " ; " : "") . "echo vimtex_compiler_callback_failure"' 'mwe.tex'
      pid: 26190
  viewer: Zathura
    cmd_start: zathura  -x "/Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim --headless -c \"VimtexInverseSearch %{line} '%{input}'\"" --synctex-forward 7:1:'/Users/rabbit/tmp/test/mwe.tex' 'mwe.pdf'&
  qf method: LaTeX logfile

run that command (modified to match what you find in :VimtexInfo) after you've closed the initial window

I'm not sure what do you mean by "the initial window", you mean the initial viewer window?

I closed the viewer zathura window. and run

$ zathura  -x "/Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim --headless -c \"VimtexInverseSearch %{line} '%{input}'\"" --synctex-forward 7:1:'/Users/rabbit/tmp/test/mwe.tex' 'mwe.pdf'&
[1] 26555
 ~/tmp/test                                                           
$ warning: Unknown option: best-fit

It opens Zathura and do the forward sync to the 2nd page "Hello Moon!" which is as expected.

Then when I click "Hello World!" on the 1st page in Zathura, nothing happened. No error output in the terminal.
No cursor jump in the editor. In Zathura, it says: "Copied selected text to selection clipboard: Hello World!" at the bottom.

[lervag]

Ok, that's strange. And if you; while having the mwe open after step 2 above; run /Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim --headless -c "VimtexInverseSearch ...", then the editor updates its position as expected?

[lervag]

Btw., do you have the same issue with Skim?

[lervag]

Also, notice (just so it's clear) that /Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim will start with your regular configuration - not with the minimal config.

[rltyty]

while having the mwe open after step 2 above; run

zathura  -x "/Users/rabbit/rmac.local/neovim/bin/nvim --clean -u minimal.vim --headless -c \"VimtexInverseSearch %{line} '%{input}'\"" --synctex-forward 7:1:'/Users/rabbit/tmp/test/mwe.tex' 'mwe.pdf'&

I ran with -clean -u minimal.vim, still the same. This command does the forward sync correctly. No cursor jump in mwe and it get no update when I click "Hello World!" in the viewer.

do you have the same issue with Skim?

Yes. Inverse sync doesn't work either if I switch the method to Skim

let g:vimtex_view_method = 'skim'

[rltyty]

Btw, this has nothing to do with plugin manager right(I don't config Vundle.vim right now). Since we already use minimal.vim.

[lervag]

I ran with -clean -u minimal.vim, still the same.

I'm not sure if that will work; but I think it should work if you use the absolute path to the minimal.vim file.

However, if you don't use --clean -u minimal.vim - does it work? Notice that this command does backward search, not forward search.

[lervag]

Btw, this has nothing to do with plugin manager right(I don't config Vundle.vim right now). Since we already use minimal.vim.

No, it may be related to your plugin manager. VimTeX asks Zathura to use the nvim --headless -c "VimtexInverseSearch ..." command to perform inverse search. When Zathura runs this, it ends up using your actual configuration, not the minimal.vim.

PS! Notice that you should have a space before the start paranthesis ;) (mentioning it because I've noticed you did the same thing a couple of times).

[lervag]

So, one way to test things more directly:

mv ~/.config/nvim ~/.config/nvim_old
mkdir ~/.config/nvim
mv minimal.vim ~/.config/nvim/init.vim

Now, ensure init.vim works and loads VimTeX as expected. You may have to change some paths. So, with this minimal config as your actual config - do things work as expected now?

[rltyty]

I did as you said.

mv ~/.config/nvim ~/.config/nvim_old
mkdir ~/.config/nvim
mv minimal.vim ~/.config/nvim/init.vim

Now it's clean for sure

> ls ~/.config/nvim
init.vim
> ls ~/.vim/bundle
vimtex
> ls
mwe.tex
 ~/tmp/test
> vim mwe.tex

And there is no ~/.latexmkrc

Still the same:

1. compilation works.
2. forward search works.
3. inverse search doesn't.
4. Close Zathrua and run the command in :VimtexInfo after step 2, it opens a Zathura window and highlights the last position in step 2 in the Zathura window.
5. click "Hello World!" in Zathura window, no reaction in mwe Vim buffer.

mwe.log
vimtexinfo.txt
mwe.synctex.txt

6. switch view method to Skim, same to step 1, 2, 3.

Notice that you should have a space before the start paranthesis ;)

My bad, thanks for the reminder. :)

[rltyty]

I also tested on a remote Linux node (through SSH + X forward) with the same clean minimal environment and same 0.9.5 nvim build from source. Same results.

[rltyty]

Is there any possibility that there is problem in inverse direction dbus communication (viewer to editor)? Since it fails on both Zathura and Skim.

[lervag]

To be honest, I'm starting to be all out of ideas here. I didn't think there was any dbus communication when you used Skim. And I have no idea why this does not work in the minimal case.

Did you try with Vim as well as neovim?

[rltyty]

I finally got MacVim + Skim case work.

PDF-TeX synchronization

Install MacVim(which is based on Vim), since Skim Sync settings can select MacVim as one of sync support editor, with preset

command: mvim
arguments: --remote-silent +"%line" "%file"

Run,

mvim -u ~/.config/nvim/init.vim mwe.tex

<leader>ll opens Skim

<leader>lv forward search work

<Command⌘>+Shift and point the "Hello World!" in Skim cause inverse sync work. The cursor in MacVim jump to line 3 ("Hello World!")

I will try more cases.

[rltyty]

Will revisit this issue tomorrow.

Just found this article by @ejmastnak , will read and have a try.

Returning focus to Neovim after inverse search on macOS

[lervag]

I finally got MacVim + Skim case work.

Install MacVim(which is based on Vim), since Skim Sync settings can select MacVim as one of sync support editor, with preset …

Does this work if you use the recommended setting from :help vimtex-view-skim? (I.e., notice you have to manually configure Skim, whereas Zathura should work without configuration.)

Will revisit this issue tomorrow.

Just found this article by @ejmastnak , will read and have a try.

Yes, the writings of @ejmastnak are very good and should be up to date (as far as I know). Thus they are a great resource for these things.

[rltyty]

Returning focus to Neovim after inverse search on macOS

I really think the above writings of @ejmastnak could fix my problems:

1. It mentions inverse search bug was found on recent macOS and provides a fix for focus loss problems

   Returning focus to Neovim after inverse search on macOS
   From my testing (on macOS 12.1) Neovim failed to regain focus after inverse search from both Skim and Zathura. Here is how to fix this problem (some steps are similar to refocusing solutions on Linux, so please excuse the repetition)
   ....

2. It also mentions the trigger of inverse search from Zathura: Ctrl+click, which I didn't realize before. I only clicked without Ctrl in my tests yesterday.

Unfortunately, the dbus service as a Zathura dependency failed to start on my mac and blocked my further tests. It took me hours to investigate but is still not solved.

If no further progress in the next few days, I'll close this thread.

[rltyty]

Just verified inverse search with Zathura successfully.

The key point is to Ctrl + click the text in Zathura to trigger the inverse sync back to Neovim.

mentioned in Forward search and inverse search

Sorry for taking up so much of your time and thanks a lot for your kindly help. @lervag

Let me summarize what I learned:

1. read :help vimtex-faq-zathura-macos and Setting Up a PDF Reader for Writing LaTeX with Vim
2. <leader>ll: compile the tex file and open the viewer Zathura automatically.
3. <leader>lv: forward sync from Neovim to Zathura
4. Ctrl + click the text on Zathura to inverse sync back to Neovim
5. dbus service, this is for the inter-application communication between Vimtex and Zathura, make sure it is up.

About dbus service, however, sometimes it may fail to start like this

> brew services
Name    Status  User   File
dbus    stopped rabbit ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.freedesktop.dbus-session.plist

> launchctl list | grep dbus
-	0	org.freedesktop.dbus-session

If you cannot fix this, like my case, don't worry, just launch the daemon manually,

dbus-daemon --fork --session --address=$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

--session option means using login user specific configuration which consists of two parts:

• default conf: /usr/local/opt/dbus/share/dbus-1/session.conf

• user custom conf (created by user): /usr/local/etc/dbus-1/session-local.conf or /usr/local/etc/dbus-1/session.d/*.conf

The directives set in the custom conf. overrides the counterparts in the default conf. This means

Change the value of <\auth> in /usr/local/opt/dbus/share/dbus-1/session.conf from EXTERNAL to DBUS_COOKIE_SHA1:

can be set in

> cat /usr/local/etc/dbus-1/session-local.conf
<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD D-Bus Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">
<busconfig>
  <auth>DBUS_COOKIE_SHA1</auth>
</busconfig>

without touching the original default one.

[lervag]

Just verified inverse search with Zathura successfully.

The key point is to Ctrl + click the text in Zathura to trigger the inverse sync back to Neovim.

It never crossed my mind that you didn't know this already... sorry for not mentioning that earlier! But I'm glad to hear it works!

Sorry for taking up so much of your time and thanks a lot for your kindly help. @lervag

Glad to help!

About dbus service, however, …

Thanks for the info. Feel free to suggest updates to the docs if you think something should be added.

[ejmastnak]

Glad to hear this is resolved :)

@rltyty, thank you for the notes on manually starting the D-Bus daemon!

I've just added a short note about manually starting D-Bus to the tutorial and mentioned your contribution (I hope you don't mind). I hope this will help others, since a lot of people trying the macOS-Zathura setup seem to get stuck at the launching D-Bus step. (I don't have access to a Mac these days (much less an Apple Silicon Mac) on which I could test the Zathura-macOS setup myself, so it is valuable and appreciated to get info from readers!

[rltyty]

@ejmastnak No, thank you for your comprehensive and clear tutorials and keep them up to date. It's my pleasure to provide any useful information to others who might encounter the same issue.

[rltyty]

Feel free to suggest updates to the docs if you think something should be added.

@lervag , I notice that you have mentioned @ejmastnak 's series in section VimTeX on the Web at the end of README.md, since he just updated the D-Bus not starting? , it's ok to leave it as it is.

Or if you feel it's necessary to point out the work-around, maybe you could add something like

"Any users encounter dbus running problems could also try the recipe in [4] for a manual start work-around."

after "try the recipe in [3]." in step 4 of :help vimtex-faq-zathura-macos

and

"[4]: #2889 (comment)"