vimscript: calling function inside inoremap throws "unknown function"

Question

I've been using Neovim with CoC for a while with no problems. Yesterday I upgraded my OS from Ubuntu 21.04 to 22.04. Without any change to my vim config files, an error pops up. I'll explain better with examples:

These are my config files (splitted in many files, fancy stuff): https://github.com/fr-mm/dot-files

Error comes from this file (CoC config file): https://github.com/fr-mm/dot-files/blob/bode/files/vim/plugins/coc.vim

In this file, I have this very common snippet used for trigger autocomplete:

inoremap <silent><expr> <TAB>
      \ pumvisible() ? "\<C-n>" :
      \ <SID>check_back_space() ? "\<TAB>" :
      \ coc#refresh()
inoremap <expr><S-TAB> pumvisible() ? "\<C-p>" : "\<C-h>"

function! s:check_back_space() abort
  let col = col('.') - 1
  return !col || getline('.')[col - 1]  =~# '\s'
endfunction

Triggering auto-complete with tab works fine, but when I try to use TAB in insert it throws

E117: Unknown function: <SNR>119_check_back_space

What does it mean: check_back_space function is not been recognized, despite been declared right below.

What I tried so far:

Declare function above use
Declare in init.vim (first file read by vim)
Declare another simpler function and use inside inoremap
Remove <SID> from function call

I'm using NVIM v0.6.1 (LuaJIT 2.1.0-beta3)

`When defining a function in a script, "s:" can be prepended to the name to make it local to the script. But when a mapping is executed from outside of the script, it doesn't know in which script the function was defined. To avoid this problem, use "" instead of "s:". The same translation is done as for mappings. This makes it possible to define a call to the function in a mapping.`, from `:help ` — Niloct, Oct 21 '22 at 20:47
Do not add "solved" to a title, or add solutions to a question body. Instead, use the "Add an Answer" button, write your own answer, and accept it when allowed -- or, if you don't want to do that, just delete the question. — Charles Duffy, Oct 22 '22 at 16:13

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 10 '23 at 14:26

There is new code in their GitHub repo for using tab to autocomplete: https://github.com/neoclide/coc.nvim

Replace these lines in your vimrc

" Use tab for trigger completion with characters ahead and navigate.
" Use command ':verbose imap <tab>' to make sure tab is not mapped by other plugin.
inoremap <silent><expr> <TAB>
      \ pumvisible() ? "\<C-n>" :
      \ <SID>check_back_space() ? "\<TAB>" :
      \ coc#refresh()
inoremap <expr><S-TAB> pumvisible() ? "\<C-p>" : "\<C-h>"

function! s:check_back_space() abort
  let col = col('.') - 1
  return !col || getline('.')[col - 1]  =~# '\s'
endfunction

with these lines (from the new version of CoC):

" Use tab for trigger completion with characters ahead and navigate
" NOTE: There's always complete item selected by default, you may want to enable
" no select by `"suggest.noselect": true` in your configuration file
" NOTE: Use command ':verbose imap <tab>' to make sure tab is not mapped by
" other plugin before putting this into your config
inoremap <silent><expr> <TAB>
      \ coc#pum#visible() ? coc#pum#next(1) :
      \ CheckBackspace() ? "\<Tab>" :
      \ coc#refresh()
inoremap <expr><S-TAB> coc#pum#visible() ? coc#pum#prev(1) : "\<C-h>"

function! CheckBackspace() abort
  let col = col('.') - 1
  return !col || getline('.')[col - 1]  =~# '\s'
endfunction

and if you want the same behaviour as before (pressing tab autocompletes the top option first, instead of the second option) then also enter the command :CocConfig to bring up your coc configuration file and add this entry to it

"suggest.noselect": true

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 07 '22 at 09:41

2

I have same problem on my machine (Ubuntu 22.04, nvim v0.8.0-1210, coc.nvim).

I “solved” this problem by removing this stuff:

inoremap <silent><expr> <TAB>
      \ pumvisible() ? "\<C-n>" :
      \ <SID>check_back_space() ? "\<TAB>" :
      \ coc#refresh()
inoremap <expr><S-TAB> pumvisible() ? "\<C-p>" : "\<C-h>"

In my opinion, this is new bug in coc.nvim. My solution isn't ultimate :)

answered Nov 07 '22 at 09:41

SUPERustam

21
1
2

but then autocomplete wont work... just go to the github page and copy the check_back_space() code into your coc.vim https://github.com/neoclide/coc.nvim – armallah Nov 12 '22 at 20:32

vimscript: calling function inside inoremap throws "unknown function"

2 Answers2