why there are some plugins installed in opt/ dir? others installed in start/ dir?

[winkee01]

I recently found that some of my plugins are installed in ~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/packer/start while others are installed under .local/share/nvim/site/pack/packer/opt, why is that?

[bryant-the-coder]

.local/share/nvim/site/pack/packer/opt is for lazy loaded plugins
.local/share/nvim/site/pack/packer/start is for non-lazy loaded plugins

[winkee01]

Later I found that my plugins are installed via packer, but it complains that 'cmp' is not installed, the plugin is indeed installed in ~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/packer/start/nvim-cmp

here is my minimal.lua

local on_windows = vim.loop.os_uname().version:match("Windows")

local function join_paths(...)
	local path_sep = on_windows and "\\" or "/"
	local result = table.concat({ ... }, path_sep)
	return result
end

vim.cmd([[set runtimepath=$VIMRUNTIME]])

local temp_dir = vim.loop.os_getenv("TEMP") or "/tmp"

vim.cmd("set packpath=" .. join_paths(temp_dir, "nvim", "site"))

local package_root = join_paths(temp_dir, "nvim", "site", "pack")
local install_path = join_paths(package_root, "packer", "start", "packer.nvim")
local compile_path = join_paths(install_path, "plugin", "packer_compiled.lua")


local function load_plugins()
	require("packer").startup({
		{
			"wbthomason/packer.nvim",
			{
				"neovim/nvim-lspconfig",
				config = {
					package_root = package_root,
					compile_path = compile_path,
				},
			},
			{
        'hrsh7th/nvim-cmp',
	      requires = {
		      'hrsh7th/cmp-nvim-lsp',         -- nvim-cmp source for neovim builtin LSP client
		    },
		    config = {
					package_root = package_root,
					compile_path = compile_path,
				},
			},
		}
	})
end

_G.load_config = function()
	vim.lsp.set_log_level("trace")
	if vim.fn.has("nvim-0.5.1") == 1 then
		require("vim.lsp.log").set_format_func(vim.inspect)
	end

	local nvim_lsp = require("lspconfig")
	local on_attach = function(_, bufnr)
		local function buf_set_keymap(...)
			vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, ...)
		end
		local function buf_set_option(...)
			vim.api.nvim_buf_set_option(bufnr, ...)
		end

		buf_set_option("omnifunc", "v:lua.vim.lsp.omnifunc")

		local opts = { noremap = true, silent = true }
		buf_set_keymap("n", "gD", "<Cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.declaration()<CR>", opts)
		buf_set_keymap("n", "gd", "<Cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.definition()<CR>", opts)
		buf_set_keymap("n", "K", "<Cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.hover()<CR>", opts)

	end

	nvim_lsp["gopls"].setup({
		on_attach = on_attach,
	})


	local cmp = require("cmp")

	cmp.setup({
	  snippet = {
	    expand = function(args)
	      vim.fn["vsnip#anonymous"](args.body)
	    end,
	  },
	  sources = cmp.config.sources({
	    { name = "nvim_lsp" },
	  }),
	})
end

if vim.fn.isdirectory(install_path) == 0 then
	vim.fn.system({ "git", "clone", "https://github.com/wbthomason/packer.nvim", install_path })
	load_plugins()
	require("packer").sync()
	vim.cmd([[autocmd User PackerComplete ++once lua load_config()]])
else
	load_plugins()
	require("packer").sync()
	_G.load_config()
end