FocusGained does not reload buffer when autoread is set

[przepompownia]

• open nvim-qt -- --clean -c 'set autoread' /tmp/test
• lose focus on nvim-qt, add any change to /tmp/test
• focus on nvim-qt again
• check if the buffer was reloaded.

I have to run :checktime manually or write autocommand for nvim-qt only. Is it intentional?

There is no such need on pure nvim.

[equalsraf]

I have to run :checktime manually or write autocommand for nvim-qt only. Is it intentional?

No, I dont think it is.

In nvim the autoread check is triggered in check_timestamps (among other places) called when there is a focus change (do_autocmd_focusgained).

Since #329 the focus events are implemented as an autocommand

https://github.com/equalsraf/neovim-qt/blob/e1d5487e69e798a0c743b1770ec50d6de005e7bf/src/gui/shell.cpp#L1566

As far as i can see the focus auto commands are working properly, but the autoread option is not.

There are a couple of conditions in nvim which can cause autoread to be skipped

https://github.com/neovim/neovim/blob/71107e12c7b68d8faf1bcc1a5794a55b21e146f3/src/nvim/fileio.c#L4678

and as you already pointed out calling :checktime does work, and is very similar

https://github.com/neovim/neovim/blob/c2624b87cb6b5ba1fe811a005cc3c0977a864633/src/nvim/ex_cmds2.c#L3509

I would have to trace nvim to figure out why this is not being called.

[przepompownia]

As far as i can see the focus auto commands are working properly, but the autoread option is not.

You are right. While I used https://github.com/tmux-plugins/vim-tmux-focus-events it executed :checktime on FocusGained with autocommand. The problem was revealed after removing this autocommand along with the plugin. Now the event is triggered but autoread does not work on it.

[przepompownia]

The bug is still present on recent master versions of both Neovim and Neovim-qt.

[drmikehenry]

The 'autoread' feature does not work out-of-the-box for both nvim-qt and neovide:

• https://github.com/equalsraf/neovim-qt/issues/846
• https://github.com/neovide/neovide/issues/1477

The 'autoread' feature does work for nvim's TUI.

The reason it works for the TUI is mentioned in this now-closed Neovim issue: https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/20082#issuecomment-1236324274

No. I just noticed that neovide already triggers FocusGained, and that triggering FocusGained from :doautocmd doesn't actually trigger a timestamp check. With TUI a timestamp check is done the same time as FocusGained, but it is not an autocommand callback, but something triggered the same time as the autocommand.

In that issue, Neovim maintainer @justinmk has commented on the 'autoread' feature: https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/20082#issuecomment-1288913518

As mentioned above, FocusGained can be used to opt-in to the behavior you want.

The general story of improving autoread is tracked in https://github.com/neovim/neovim/issues/1380

This refers to having GUI users add this to their configuration:

autocmd FocusGained * checktime

I can confirm that this work-around does restore the 'autoread' functionality for me, with both GUIs.

It's unclear to me whether there is a long-term plan to restore the 'autoread' feature for Neovim GUIs users without requiring the above work-around.

[justinmk]

Thanks for that summary @drmikehenry . As noted in https://github.com/neovide/neovide/issues/1477 , the GUI just needs to call nvim_ui_set_focus.