How can I package support for a language?

[Jummit]

I have a language which is used internally, and would like to distribute support for Helix in a robust and cross-platform way. It would be nice if HELIX_RUNTIME would supported multiple paths, then one could add the folder with language-specific configuration to HELIX_RUNTIME.

Example for Linux:

export HELIX_RUNTIME=${HELIX_RUNTIME:-${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/helix/runtime}:/language-support/runtime

# or, in short

export HELIX_RUNTIME=~/.config/helix/runtime:/language-support/runtime

Currently, I'd have to edit the languages.toml file and modify the (only) runtime folder, which will be a little difficult to maintain.

Any ideas on how to best package Helix configuration?

[the-mikedavis]

I think you might be able to use HELIX_DEFAULT_RUNTIME for this if you're also building Helix #8610

[Jummit]

Hm, I'm not providing the Helix executable, that should be installed on each machine using the package manager. But this wouldn't scale well either, with support for just one "package".

[the-mikedavis]

Internally we allow multiple runtime directories, see

helix/helix-loader/src/lib.rs

Lines 30 to 77 in ab203b5

	/// A list of runtime directories from highest to lowest priority
	///
	/// The priority is:
	///
	/// 1. sibling directory to `CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR` (if environment variable is set)
	/// 2. subdirectory of user config directory (always included)
	/// 3. `HELIX_RUNTIME` (if environment variable is set)
	/// 4. `HELIX_DEFAULT_RUNTIME` (if environment variable is set *at build time*)
	/// 5. subdirectory of path to helix executable (always included)
	///
	/// Postcondition: returns at least two paths (they might not exist).
	fn prioritize_runtime_dirs() -> Vec<PathBuf> {
	const RT_DIR: &str = "runtime";
	// Adding higher priority first
	let mut rt_dirs = Vec::new();
	if let Ok(dir) = std::env::var("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR") {
	// this is the directory of the crate being run by cargo, we need the workspace path so we take the parent
	let path = PathBuf::from(dir).parent().unwrap().join(RT_DIR);
	log::debug!("runtime dir: {}", path.to_string_lossy());
	rt_dirs.push(path);
	}
	let conf_rt_dir = config_dir().join(RT_DIR);
	rt_dirs.push(conf_rt_dir);
	if let Ok(dir) = std::env::var("HELIX_RUNTIME") {
	let dir = path::expand_tilde(Path::new(&dir));
	rt_dirs.push(path::normalize(dir));
	}
	// If this variable is set during build time, it will always be included
	// in the lookup list. This allows downstream packagers to set a fallback
	// directory to a location that is conventional on their distro so that they
	// need not resort to a wrapper script or a global environment variable.
	if let Some(dir) = std::option_env!("HELIX_DEFAULT_RUNTIME") {
	rt_dirs.push(dir.into());
	}
	// fallback to location of the executable being run
	// canonicalize the path in case the executable is symlinked
	let exe_rt_dir = std::env::current_exe()
	.ok()
	.and_then(|path| std::fs::canonicalize(path).ok())
	.and_then(|path| path.parent().map(|path| path.to_path_buf().join(RT_DIR)))
	.unwrap();
	rt_dirs.push(exe_rt_dir);
	rt_dirs
	}

. It could be useful to allow specifying more than one with HELIX_RUNTIME like you say, and I think it could be a very small change