ALE overrides colorscheme colors

[waylon531]

Information

VIM version

NVIM v0.11.3
Build type: RelWithDebInfo

Operating System:
Arch Linux

What went wrong

ALE overrides my default syntax highlighting colors. I think this a regression because it did not always happen. I'm not really sure when it would have happened because I don't run :PlugUpdate very often ... so I'm not sure if a configuration option changed or something broke or what. I tried messing with g:ale_use_neovim_diagnostics_api and let g:ale_set_highlights = 0 but neither had any effect.

Here ALE is disabled and my colors are working normally:

Here it is enabled and the colors are changed:

Reproducing the bug

1. Open nvim, observe changed colors

:ALEInfo

Expand

Current Filetype: rust
Available Linters: ['analyzer', 'cargo', 'cspell', 'rls', 'rustc']
Linter Aliases:
'analyzer' -> ['rust_analyzer']
Enabled Linters: ['analyzer']
Ignored Linters: []
Suggested Fixers:
'remove_trailing_lines' - Remove all blank lines at the end of a file.
'rustfmt' - Fix Rust files with Rustfmt.
'trim_whitespace' - Remove all trailing whitespace characters at the end of every line.

Linter Variables:
let g:ale_rust_analyzer_config = {}
let g:ale_rust_analyzer_executable = 'rust-analyzer'

Global Variables:
let g:ale_cache_executable_check_failures = v:null
let g:ale_change_sign_column_color = v:null
let g:ale_command_wrapper = ''
let g:ale_completion_delay = v:null
let g:ale_completion_enabled = v:false
let g:ale_completion_max_suggestions = v:null
let g:ale_disable_lsp = 'auto'
let g:ale_echo_cursor = v:true
let g:ale_echo_msg_error_str = 'Error'
let g:ale_echo_msg_format = '%code: %%s'
let g:ale_echo_msg_info_str = 'Info'
let g:ale_echo_msg_warning_str = 'Warning'
let g:ale_enabled = 0
let g:ale_fix_on_save = v:false
let g:ale_fixers = {'rust': ['rustfmt']}
let g:ale_history_enabled = v:true
let g:ale_info_default_mode = 'preview'
let g:ale_history_log_output = v:true
let g:ale_keep_list_window_open = 0
let g:ale_lint_delay = 200
let g:ale_lint_on_enter = v:true
let g:ale_lint_on_filetype_changed = v:true
let g:ale_lint_on_insert_leave = v:true
let g:ale_lint_on_save = v:true
let g:ale_lint_on_text_changed = 'normal'
let g:ale_linter_aliases = {}
let g:ale_linters = {'rust': ['analyzer']}
let g:ale_linters_explicit = v:false
let g:ale_linters_ignore = {}
let g:ale_list_vertical = v:false
let g:ale_list_window_size = 10
let g:ale_loclist_msg_format = '%code: %%s'
let g:ale_max_buffer_history_size = 20
let g:ale_max_signs = v:null
let g:ale_maximum_file_size = v:null
let g:ale_open_list = v:false
let g:ale_pattern_options = v:null
let g:ale_pattern_options_enabled = v:null
let g:ale_root = {}
let g:ale_set_balloons = v:false
let g:ale_set_highlights = v:true
let g:ale_set_loclist = v:true
let g:ale_set_quickfix = v:false
let g:ale_set_signs = v:true
let g:ale_sign_column_always = v:null
let g:ale_sign_error = v:null
let g:ale_sign_info = v:null
let g:ale_sign_offset = v:null
let g:ale_sign_style_error = v:null
let g:ale_sign_style_warning = v:null
let g:ale_sign_warning = v:null
let g:ale_sign_highlight_linenrs = v:null
let g:ale_type_map = {}
let g:ale_use_neovim_diagnostics_api = v:true
let g:ale_use_global_executables = v:null
let g:ale_virtualtext_cursor = 'all'
let g:ale_warn_about_trailing_blank_lines = v:true
let g:ale_warn_about_trailing_whitespace = v:true

Command History:

(executable check - success) rust-analyzer
(started) ['/bin/zsh', '-c', '''rust-analyzer''']

[rymdbar]

In order to make this actionable, could you post the names of the syntax groups which seem to be overridden? The easiest way to obtain those is by using the oneliner from :help synID(). Navigate your way down to buckets and call :echo synIDattr(synID(line("."), col("."), 1), "name") while having your cursor in the middle of the word. Please do this both with ale disabled and enabled, and post the results. The output of :hi might be interesting too.

[waylon531]

The output of :echo synIDattr(synID(line("."), col("."), 1), "name") on "buckets" is empty with ALE enabled or disabled. I do see that on things that are highlighted correctly and not changed, that they do output something. For example, "mut" outputs "rustStorage" whether ALE is enabled or disabled.

It looks like the output of :hi for both is the same, is there anything in particular I'm looking for there? Or any easy way to dump the output to a file or something? It's super long so I'm not sure how to post it

[waylon531]

Revolution.vim.txt

Here's my colors file if it helps at all, I wonder if something isn't set right? I've been using the same file for years with no issues but maybe its a combination of things

[rymdbar]

The output of :echo synIDattr(synID(line("."), col("."), 1), "name") on "buckets" is empty with ALE enabled or disabled.

Indeed there appears to be no other group active there than the default one, named Normal. That ought to mean that calling hi Normal guifg=#bdae88 guibg=#000000 guisp=#262626 gui=NONE ctermfg=144 ctermbg=16 cterm=NONE restores the correct colour for it, Right?

[…] is there anything in particular I'm looking for there? […] maybe its a combination of things

I typed in you example, but can not reproduce. Could you please try a minimal config with nothing but ale and your Revolution scheme configured and see if the issue still occur? Re-adding back other plugins and configurations until the problem reappears if applicable?

To the best of my understanding, which admittedly isn't perfect, ALE does not intend to mess with the highlighting of the default group. New groups are added for linter warnings in the gutter and what not, but the style of the actual text in the buffer should stay untouched. It would be interesting to know if there is interference with some other plugin, or what might be happening.

[waylon531]

hi Normal guifg=#bdae88 guibg=#000000 guisp=#262626 gui=NONE ctermfg=144 ctermbg=16 cterm=NONE doesn't appear to change anything, it stays bright white instead of the intended color.

The issue reproduces with a minimal config, I see it still with

call plug#begin('~/.config/nvim/plugged')
Plug 'dense-analysis/ale'
call plug#end()

colorscheme Revolution      " colorscheme

[waylon531]

Oh, I don't think I mentioned this before, but the colors are normal for a little bit when you open up nvim. They only change after about 2 seconds.

[waylon531]

I ran a git bisect and it looks like the issue only appears in 8ee20ec

Looking at that commit, if I set the new option that was introduced to 0, it fixes the issue for me.

let g:ale_use_neovim_lsp_api = 0

[rymdbar]

I ran a git bisect and it looks like the issue only appears in 8ee20ec

Ah! That's a good investigation, leading to understanding of the root cause. Well done!

According to :help lsp-semantic-highlight this appears to be expected behaviour with neovim. The very first section of the linked help entry reads:

When available, the LSP client highlights code using lsp-semantic_tokens, which are another way that LSP servers can provide information about source code. Note that this is in addition to treesitter syntax highlighting; semantic highlighting does not replace syntax highlighting.

[…] if I set the new option that was introduced to 0, it fixes the issue for me.

let g:ale_use_neovim_lsp_api = 0

Glad you got your environment back to normal! That will of course give more of a classic vim than a neovim experience.

Reading on from the same :help lsp-semantic-highlight it provides a more fine-grained alternative:

You can disable semantic highlights by clearing the highlight groups:

-- Hide semantic highlights for functions
vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, '@lsp.type.function', {})
-- Hide all semantic highlights
for _, group in ipairs(vim.fn.getcompletion("@lsp", "highlight")) do
  vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, group, {})
end

You probably want these inside a ColorScheme autocommand.

Doing something here in ALE is probably out of scope, but that might just be me lacking imagination.