grammars must have a file src/parser.c

[jonassmedegaard]

Summary

helix-loader grammar compiler supports grammars that omit src/scanner.c but fail to compile if src/parser.c is missing.

Reproduction Steps

I tried switching to the alternative Perl grammar in languages.toml:

[[grammar]]
name = "perl"
source = { git = "https://github.com/tree-sitter-perl/tree-sitter-perl", rev = "7dab73715fa18309102892eda2b190bcb3c7b9b4" }

hx --grammar fetch succeeded, but hx --grammar build failed.

Patching helix to tolerate missing parser.c makes the build succeed, (and the resulting experience is a more reliable Perl grammar - I'll file a separate issue about that).

Helix log

No response

Platform

Linux

Terminal Emulator

alacritty 0.11.0

Helix Version

helix 23.05

[pascalkuthe]

A treesitter grammar without a parser.c is pointless. That's a grammar that just won't work. Looking at the repo you linked it seems that the parser.c file needs to be auto generated with nodejs first.

This is the case for all grammars but usually theystore the parser.c in the repo to avoid downstream users having to install npm. If you want to use this grammar with helix you need to fork it and check parser.c into git after you habe generated it.

[jonassmedegaard]

Oh. Thanks for educating me.

I guess that I then totally misunderstood what to look for, when assessing that it works succesfully :-P

[jonassmedegaard]

Well, evidently my build succeeded. Apparently it is possible to build succesfully, when the proper libraries are available system-shared, as is the case on Debian linux - I guess with the package libtree-sitter-dev installed.

[oschwald]

github.com/tree-sitter-perl/tree-sitter-perl does appear to include the generated files in a release branch that their CI generates.

I briefly tried to get it working with Helix. I was able to fetch and build it without error, but on running, I ran into:

2023-07-04T19:03:56.221 helix_core::syntax [ERROR] Could not parse queries for language "perl". Are your grammars out of sync? Try running 'hx --grammar fetch' and 'hx --grammar build'. This query could not be parsed: QueryError { row: 3, column: 3, offset: 41, message: "scope", kind: NodeType }

I did not debug it further.