fisher update not install plugin but remove fish_plugins file

[taikulawo]

I sync fish config across machine by git.
But on another machine I run fisher update, fisher just delete fish_plugins

[jorgebucaran]

Hmm, I really can't help without more info. Maybe share your entire configuration and sync strategy, maybe in a Docker image or a repository.

[taikulawo]

extract to fish/ then run fisher update
fish.tar.gz

[jorgebucaran]

Could you share the contents here instead?

[taikulawo]

sure. fish_plugins file

jorgebucaran/fisher
patrickf1/fzf.fish

and install fisher

[jorgebucaran]

Is that what's in your gzipped tar file? What I need is your complete configuration and sync setup. Without it, reproducing your state won't be possible anytime soon.

[taikulawo]

https://github.com/taikulawo/home I clone (means sync)it on my homedir

[jorgebucaran]

The only file I'd put in my dot files would be fish_plugins, similar to how you wouldn't sync node_modules.

[taikulawo]

I dont understand, I'm wrong?

[jorgebucaran]

I saw you're committing all Fish files in your repo, including plugins likely installed with Fisher. In that case, what would be the purpose of fish_plugins? This file serves as a manifest of your plugins and should be enough for syncing across different machines. You'd simply use fisher install to install the plugins instead of relying on git.

[taikulawo]

Does fisher install not extra argument can install all plugin in manifest?

$ fisher install
fisher: Not enough arguments for command: "install"

sometime my network is offline, so I need to sync plugin file at first. but why fisher delete fish_plugins when I run fisher update?

[jorgebucaran]

Thanks for the clarification. You're right, it's fisher update (not install), as indicated in the docs. 👍

[jorgebucaran]

Yes, Fisher will delete fish_plugins, but only if it's empty. For example, if you remove all plugins from fish_plugins and then run fisher update, Fisher will uninstall all plugins and subsequently delete the file.

fisher/functions/fisher.fish

Lines 210 to 213 in 2efd33c

	else
	set --erase _fisher_plugins
	command rm -f $fish_plugins
	end

[taikulawo]

but my file_plugins is not empty

[jorgebucaran]

My approach to test this:

• Set up two machines, A and B.
• On machine A, install Fisher and other necessary plugins.
• Save or sync the fish_plugins file to machine B.
• On machine B, run fisher update.

This process should make sure that B is updated to match A, which is how Fisher is supposed to work.

[taikulawo]

oh, I found reason
when I init fisher, fisher add following variables to fish_variables file. But my sync don't include it. On another manchine which don't have this variable, fisher will remove fish_plugins file

SETUVAR __fish_initialized:3400
SETUVAR _fisher_jorgebucaran_2F_fisher_files:\x7e/\x2econfig/fish/functions/fisher\x2efish\x1e\x7e/\x2econfig/fish/completions/fisher\x2efish
SETUVAR _fisher_plugins:jorgebucaran/fisher

[taikulawo]

Is those variable necessary? I think fish_plugins is enough

[jorgebucaran]

The approach I outlined above should do for a basic setup. For example, if you uninstall all your plugins, start from scratch, create a fish_plugins file, add several plugins to it, and then run fisher update, Fisher should install those plugins. But if this isn't enough for you, how about committing your fish_variables in addition to your fish_plugins.

[taikulawo]

fish_variables is platform special. I sync all my conf across different platform, linux/mac, so fish_variables isn't suitable for my case if I sync it, which make linux variable sync to windows, broken

[taikulawo]

from my test, If target machine don't have fisher special variable in fish_variables, fisher update will broken, delete fish_plugin file

[jorgebucaran]

Fisher cleans and variables before saving or reading from fish_variables to prevent some basic issues, e.g.:

fisher/functions/fisher.fish

Line 141 in 2efd33c

command rm -rf (string replace -- \~ ~ $$plugin_files_var)

...but I don't know about Windows.

[jorgebucaran]

What I did: I made sure there were no Fisher variables in fish_variables, uninstalled everything Fisher-related, created an empty fish_plugins file, added some plugins, thus replicating a machine without Fisher but with my fish_plugins file. Then, fisher update, and it behaved as expected; the plugins were installed.

[taikulawo]

you should exit fish, and reopen a new fresh fish instance, make sure there not fisher variable. then fisher update

[jorgebucaran]

I did that and succeeded. Did that not work for you?

[taikulawo]

rm -rf ~/.config/fish
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jorgebucaran/fisher/main/functions/fisher.fish | source && fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher
rm ~/.config/fish/fish_variables
# let fish exit now

# open a new fish shell
# make sure no value output
echo $_fisher_plugins
# run fisher update, fish_plugins file should be deleted
fisher update

[jorgebucaran]

To clarify, did this work out for you?

[taikulawo]

rm -rf ~/.config/fish
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jorgebucaran/fisher/main/functions/fisher.fish | source && fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher
rm ~/.config/fish/fish_variables
# let fish exit now

# open a new fish shell
# make sure no value output
echo $_fisher_plugins
# run fisher update, fish_plugins file should be deleted
fisher update

no, it's bug reproduce step.

[jorgebucaran]

Sorry for the long silence and thanks for the script. I haven't been able to repro the issue yet, but I'll try to dig into it again soon. 👍

[00sapo]

I'm also experiencing the same issue.
Having deleted fish_variables makes $_fisher_plugins empty. When doing fisher update, it tries to update the plugins from $_fisher_plugins, but errors saying that files are present. I guess it doesn't expect them because it's checking $_fisher_plugins instead of fish_plugins. It ends with "syncing" fish_plugins with $_fish_plugins, and thus deleting it.

Is those variable necessary? I think fish_plugins is enough

I agree, it doesn't look really useful, since it's just an exact copy of fish_plugins

[jorgebucaran]

Do you sync your Fish config across different machines using Git? I know some people use Fisher for that, and Fisher makes it easy, but I still don't understand how you ran into this issue.

[mercxry]

I ran into the same issue! My dotfiles include the completions, functions, and conf.d folders, which contain plugin files, but I don’t include the fish_variables file because it can have sensitive data and isn't always compatible across environments.

To reproduce you can try removing all the fisher variables from the fish_variables file and run either fisher install or fisher update and you should get something like this (you might want to backup your fish_plugins and fish_variables files first):

---

I expected fisher install or fisher update to create any missing files and update things like fish_variables, but instead, I get an error saying the plugin files already exists, and it removes the fish_plugins file.

It would be awesome if there were a way to force an install/update, like fisher install --force. Another idea could be to remove the dependency on fish_variables entirely or treat it as a cache rather than the source of truth, but in any case I don't think the fish_plugins file should be deleted. What do you think?

[JoshuaToenyes]

I'll echo @mercxry. I'm currently working through the same issues described above. I'm new to Fisher, but I expected a fisher install or fisher update to recognize that the completions, functions, and configuration files were already present... but instead it complains about conflicting files.

fisher: Cannot install "jorgebucaran/fisher": please remove or move conflicting files first:
        /home/josh/.config/fish/completions/fisher.fish

I would also like to avoid keeping fish_variables in git to avoid accidentally leaking secrets...

I was able to bootstrap the new system by removing the conflicting files, running fish update, and now all seems fine... but I'm sure I'll run into problems if I store files managed by fisher in version control.

I suppose another approach would be to allow fisher to manage all content in completions, conf.d, functions, etc., but that seems less than ideal to me.

[00sapo]

Do you sync your Fish config across different machines using Git? I know some people use Fisher for that, and Fisher makes it easy, but I still don't understand how you ran into this issue.

Yes, all the config directory is under git for me