LuaLS / LuaLS/lua-language-server
Inconsistent Go To Definition Behavior
Nobody has claimed this yet.
- Dominant language
- Lua
- Stars
- 4.4k
- Forks
- 442
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Description
How are you using the lua-language-server?
Visual Studio Code Extension (sumneko.lua)
Which OS are you using?
Windows
What is the issue affecting?
Type Checking
Expected Behaviour
Consider the following code:
---@class A
---@field t table<string, number>
---@field s string
---@class B
---@field a A
---@type B
local b = {
a = {
t = { x = 1 },
s = 'hi',
}
}
When you ctrl+click (or Go To Definition) on a inside the declaration of variable b, the cursor moves to ---@field a A in the type definition of class B. That's useful behavior. Similarly, when you do the same on s inside the nested a declaration, it goes to --@field s string in class A as expected.
When you click on t however (in t = { x = 1 }, it takes you to the builtin.lua meta file and places the cursor on the definition for tables @class table<K, V>: { [K]: V }. Not only is that behavior not consistent with the above, but it's also completely useless.
Another example (and probably different issue) is if you move the variable declaration to another file, like this:
File 1:
---@class A
---@field t table<string, number>
---@field s string
---@class B
---@field a A
File 2:
---@type B
local b = {
a = {
t = { x = 1 },
s = 'hi',
}
}
Now going to the definition of t still takes you to builtin.lua, but going to the definition of a, or s does nothing at all. I assume it's because it's treating their "definition" as the same line where they are declared in File 2.
Ideally I would like Go to Definition to do something useful inside table declarations and take me to the type annotation. But if that's not possible it should at least be consistent. In my opinion it should never take you to builtin.lua if there's another more suitable definition.
I think this worked fine in a previous version. I only started to see this behavior in the last few months.
Actual Behaviour
See above.
Reproduction steps
See above.
Additional Notes
No response
Log File
No response
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the Lua snippets in the issue and reproduce Go To Definition in the Visual Studio Code extension on Windows, comparing inline and cross-file declarations. Trace why the t field resolves to builtin.lua while a and s resolve differently. Done means table-field navigation consistently reaches the relevant type annotation or avoids the builtin table definition, with regression coverage for both examples.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- lua
- Domain
- devtools
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 42/100