vis and entr

[geekdrive]

Vis doesn't work with a tool like entr (https://github.com/clibs/entr) as the file on disk is not updated on write (:w). It works the first time but then fails. The file is updated on write and close (:wq).

Is there anyway to configure it so that it works? Is there anyway to force vis to flush the file to disk without closing vis.

[ninewise]

I was trying to reproduce this using inotifywait -m directly; I'm seeing the same. However, after this occured, other programs are ignored by ifnotifywait, as well.

% inotifywait -m --timefmt "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S" --format "%T %e" testdisk.log
Setting up watches.
Watches established.
2019-04-17 09:45:31 OPEN
2019-04-17 09:45:31 ACCESS
2019-04-17 09:45:31 CLOSE_NOWRITE,CLOSE
2019-04-17 09:45:31 OPEN
2019-04-17 09:45:31 ACCESS
2019-04-17 09:45:31 ACCESS
2019-04-17 09:45:31 CLOSE_NOWRITE,CLOSE
2019-04-17 09:45:34 OPEN
2019-04-17 09:45:34 CLOSE_NOWRITE,CLOSE
2019-04-17 09:45:34 ATTRIB
2019-04-17 09:45:34 DELETE_SELF

The first series is me opening the file in vis, three seconds later I save the file. From the manpage about the delete_self event:

A watched file or directory was deleted. After this event the file or directory is no longer being watched. Note that this event can occur even if it is not explicitly being listened for.

It seems vis deletes the file, replacing it with a new one. This causes inotify (and probably kqueue, the other backend of entr) to stop listening.

[ninewise]

I recall some discussion about this in which was stated why this is how vis works, but I can't find the relative issue.

[ghost]

It should work if you put this in your visrc.lua:

vis.events.subscribe(vis.events.WIN_OPEN, function(win)
	vis:command'set savemethod inplace'
end)

[geekdrive]

Using savemethod inplace fixes the problem. Thanks.

Please note that savemethod has to be in the WIN_OPEN event, it does not work if you put it under INIT (which I had tried previously). I kinda assumed that putting under INIT, that would make it the default (like some of the other settings) but anyway.