Error detected while processing BufWritePre Autocommands for "*"..function <SNR>23_StripWhitespaceOnSave

[asgeo1]

I'm getting this error when saving a file in Vim:

Error detected while processing BufWritePre Autocommands for "*"..function 23_StripWhitespaceOnSave

I think about 2 weeks ago, I updated my plugins and everything was fine. And today I've updated them again, and now I get this error. It's weird, because looking at this repo, it doesn't look like anything has changed.

I've tried to isolate the issue by removing every plugin (other than vim-better-whitespace), and pretty much commenting out my entire Vim setup, other than packer.

I still get the same error, which is really weird. Any ideas?

This is how I am using this plugin in my packer setup:

    use {
        'ntpeters/vim-better-whitespace',
        config = function()
          vim.g.strip_whitespace_on_save = 1
          vim.g.better_whitespace_filetypes_blacklist = {
            'spectre_panel',
            'diff',
            'git',
            'gitcommit',
            'unite',
            'qf',
            'help',
            'markdown',
            'fugitive',
          }
          vim.g.strip_whitespace_confirm = 0
          vim.g.show_spaces_that_precede_tabs = 1
          vim.g.better_whitespace_operator = '_s'
          vim.g.strip_only_modified_lines = 1
        end,
      }

[Cimbali]

Hi @asgeo1, can you give details of your platform, vim version, plugin manager, etc? Seeing the error and when it happens I think it could be your diff command that changed. You should be able to set it using vim.g.diff_binary

[kstevens715]

I get this same error. I thought I first saw it after upgrading to Neovim nightly. But I also just tried it and reproduced it with versions 0.7.2, 0.8.0 and 0.8.1.

I'm using a Mac and Packer as my plugin manager. Here's some info about my current Neovim version:

NVIM v0.9.0-dev-415+g282dda643-dirty
Build type: Release
LuaJIT 2.1.0-beta3

[Cimbali]

Does the error disappear if you set g:strip_only_modified_lines=0 ? If so, what are the outputs of command diff --version and which -a diff ?

[kstevens715]

Yes, setting g:strip_only_modified_lines=0 does make the error go away.

Here's the output of those commands:

➜  dotfiles git:(master) ✗ command diff --version
Apple diff (based on FreeBSD diff)
➜  dotfiles git:(master) ✗ which -a diff
/usr/bin/diff

[kstevens715]

If I replace Apple diff with GNU diffutils (brew install diffutils) the problem also goes away.

[Cimbali]

yes so this is the same as #159. If you use GNU diff (brew install diffutils) then you’ll be able to keep strip_only_modified_lines=1. I’m not sure why this seems to change for several users at the same time.