Formatting on save should be disabled by default

[EJammy]

Feature Description

Formatting on save changes user's file with no easy way to undo. It should be disabled.

Reasons:

• This is the behavior on most (all?) editors
• Formatting on save might mess up someone's file when they are just trying LunarVim for the first time

I know default configurations are opinions, but I don't think formatting on save is a good thing to enable by default. I installed LunarVim to try it out on my files and had to find ways to restore it because LunarVim formats it unexpectably.

Describe the alternatives you have considered

:au! format_on_save

Support information

No response

[abzcoding]

change this line in your ~/.config/lvim/config.lua

lvim.format_on_save = true

to

lvim.format_on_save = false

[abzcoding]

user's file with no easy way to undo

hitting the u key in normal mode will revert back the changes

[abzcoding]

cc: @kylo252 what do you think?
i have this disabled in my own config as well

[kylo252]

Formatting on save changes user's file with no easy way to undo. It should be disabled.

It should be easy to undo tho, since both undodir and undofile are set.

cc: @kylo252 what do you think? i have this disabled in my own config as well

I actually have it set only for lua files, so maybe we can/should tweak the default pattern, see :h autocmd-pattern

lvim.format_on_save = {
  ---@usage pattern string pattern used for the autocommand (Default: '*')
  pattern = "*.lua",
  ---@usage timeout number timeout in ms for the format request (Default: 1000)
  timeout = 1000,
}

[abzcoding]

lvim.format_on_save = {
  ---@usage pattern string pattern used for the autocommand (Default: '*')
  pattern = "*.lua",
  ---@usage timeout number timeout in ms for the format request (Default: 1000)
  timeout = 1000,
}

lets put this in the default config.lua

[danielo515]

I think sticking to what most editors do is better. I think most editors do format on save, and I actually like this behaviour.
Why don't you just configure it to your liking?

[abzcoding]

I think sticking to what most editors do is better. I think most editors do format on save, and I actually like this behaviour.
Why don't you just configure it to your liking?

we should at least use this syntax

lvim.format_on_save = {
  ---@usage pattern string pattern used for the autocommand (e.g: '*.lua')
  pattern = "*",
  ---@usage timeout number timeout in ms for the format request (Default: 1000)
  timeout = 1000,
}

instead of

LunarVim/utils/installer/config.example.lua

Lines 13 to 14 in b4d5f09

	lvim.format_on_save = true
	lvim.colorscheme = "onedarker"

in our default config file

[danielo515]

I agree that putting it more accesible on the default config is the best thing to do

[EJammy]

I think sticking to what most editors do is better. I think most editors do format on save, and I actually like this behaviour. Why don't you just configure it to your liking?

I did! My concern is that when I first tested lunarvim on my files, it auto formatted the file and I didn't know how to restore at first (you can't undo and save because saving triggers formatting).

[LostNeophyte]

There's a PR for a keybind to save without formatting #3165

[Uzaaft]

The default

I think sticking to what most editors do is better. I think most editors do format on save, and I actually like this behaviour.
Why don't you just configure it to your liking?

The vscode editor does not do this as default.
Nor does other professional IDE's, like clion, pycharm, etc.

Regarding what you wrote @abzcoding .
I think that would confuse some users?

[abzcoding]

Regarding what you wrote @abzcoding .
I think that would confuse some users?

probably 😢

[Uzaaft]

Regarding what you wrote @abzcoding .
I think that would confuse some users?

probably 😢

Not everyone is a beast like you xD
I can add those to Lunarvim.org if you'd like. I can also go ahead change the default value in the example config if people here wants it to be off by default. I think it makes sense to have this off as default, since most IDE's does that as well.

[rebuilt]

We started with the autoformat setting as OFF. We set the example config to ON because we had so many open issues asking how to turn it on. Now that it's the default option, we don't get as many questions about it.

[tillfalko]

Relevant to this discussion is that, out of the box, editing Shell scripts with LunarVim is very annoying since every save results in the following popup.

[LSP] Format request failed, no matching language servers.

Editing Shell scripts is, especially among Vim users, a fairly basic and common task, that I did not expect to require user configuration.

Relevant: #3048

[LostNeophyte]

Notify is removed now so if you update you won't get the popups anymore

[LostNeophyte]

Or if you don't want to update you can do this:

lvim.builtin.notify.level = vim.log.levels.WARN

[spacerodent]

I am using Lunarvim because of the strong opinions and so I want formatting on save to be the default. As long as it can be disabled easily I don't see the problem. I don't mind the pop up message when there is no language server install. My 2 cents.

[LostNeophyte]

Formatting on save is now disabled by default 08d3c05

[danielo515]

What the hell? Why do I have to keep track of breaking changes continously? I thought this was a community project,but I keep seeing how breaking changes based on particular user preferences are added

[aum7]

that is what community is all about, lol