Zig Language Server, or zls, is a language server for Zig. The Zig wiki states that "The Zig community is decentralized" and "There is no concept of 'official' or 'unofficial'", so instead of calling zls unofficial, and I'm going to call it a cool option, one of many.
Installation starts with downloading an official release from the Releases page.
Up to date builds from master branch are also available in the latest successful CI run, contained in the builds artifact.
See Downloading and Building ZLS on the Wiki, or the page about using ZLS with Visual Studio Code for a guide to help get zls running in your editor.
You can install the latest release into $HOME/zls using e.g.:
brew install xz
mkdir $HOME/zls && cd $HOME/zls && curl -L https://github.com/zigtools/zls/releases/download/0.9.0/x86_64-macos.tar.xz | tar -xJ --strip-components=1 -C .You can install the latest release into $HOME/zls using e.g.:
sudo apt install xz-utils
mkdir $HOME/zls && cd $HOME/zls && curl -L https://github.com/zigtools/zls/releases/download/0.9.0/x86_64-linux.tar.xz | tar -xJ --strip-components=1 -C .
Building zls is very easy. You will need a build of Zig master to build zls.
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/zigtools/zls
cd zls
zig build -Drelease-safe
./zig-out/bin/zls config # Configure ZLSFor detailed building instructions, see the Wiki page about Cloning With Git.
| Option | Type | Default Value | What it Does |
|---|---|---|---|
-Ddata_version |
string (master, 0.7.0 or 0.7.1) |
master | The data file version. This selects the files in the src/data folder that correspond to the Zig version being served. |
There is a generate-data.py in the src/data folder, run this file to update data files.
It writes to stdout and you can redirect output to a zig file like master.zig. By default it generates data file for master, but can be configured to generate for a different version by modifying the zig_version variable. Files generated by this tool contains formatting information.
There is also a generate-data.js in the src/data folder, you'll need to run this inside a Chrome DevTools console and copy the output. Files generated by this tool does not contain formatting information.
You can configure zls by running zls config or manually creating your own zls.json configuration file.
zls will look for a zls.json configuration file in multiple locations with the following priority:
- In the local configuration folder of your OS (as provided by known-folders)
- In the global configuration folder of your OS (as provided by known-folders)
The following options are currently available.
| Option | Type | Default value | What it Does |
|---|---|---|---|
enable_snippets |
bool |
false |
Enables snippet completions when the client also supports them. |
zig_lib_path |
?[]const u8 |
null |
zig library path, e.g. /path/to/zig/lib/zig, used to analyze std library imports. |
zig_exe_path |
?[]const u8 |
null |
zig executable path, e.g. /path/to/zig/zig, used to run the custom build runner. If null, zig is looked up in PATH. Will be used to infer the zig standard library path if none is provided. |
warn_style |
bool |
false |
Enables warnings for style guideline mismatches |
build_runner_path |
?[]const u8 |
null |
Path to the build_runner.zig file provided by zls. null is equivalent to ${executable_directory}/build_runner.zig |
build_runner_cache_path |
?[]const u8 |
null |
Path to a directroy that will be used as zig's cache when running zig run build_runner.zig .... null is equivalent to ${KnownFloders.Cache}/zls |
enable_semantic_tokens |
bool |
true |
Enables semantic token support when the client also supports it. |
operator_completions |
bool |
true |
Enables * and ? operators in completion lists. |
skip_std_references |
bool |
false |
When true, skips searching for references in std. Improves lookup speed for functions in user's code. Renaming and go-to-definition will continue to work as is. |
zls supports most language features, including simple type function support, usingnamespace, payload capture type resolution, custom packages and others.
Notable language features that are not currently implemented include @cImport as well as most forms of compile time evaluation.
The following LSP features are supported:
- Completions
- Hover
- Goto definition/declaration
- Document symbols
- Find references
- Rename symbol
- Formatting using
zig fmt - Semantic token highlighting (LSP 3.16 proposed feature, implemented by a few clients including VSCode, kak and emacs lsp-mode)
You can install zls using the instuctions for your text editor below:
Install the zls-vscode extension from here and provide a path to the build zls executable.
- Install the
LSPpackage from here or via Package Control. - Add this snippet to
LSP'suser settings:
{
"clients": {
"zig": {
"command": ["zls"],
"enabled": true,
"languageId": "zig",
"scopes": ["source.zig"],
"syntaxes": ["Packages/Zig Language/Syntaxes/Zig.tmLanguage"]
}
}
}{
"clients": {
"zig": {
"command": ["zls"],
"enabled": true,
"selector": "source.zig"
}
}
}- Enable
LSP clientplugin in Kate settings. - Add this snippet to
LSP client'suser settings (e.g. /$HOME/.config/kate/lspclient) (or paste it inLSP client'sGUI settings)
{
"servers": {
"zig": {
"command": ["zls"],
"url": "https://github.com/zigtools/zls",
"highlightingModeRegex": "^Zig$"
}
}
}- Install the CoC engine from here.
- Issue
:CocConfigfrom within your Vim editor, and the following snippet:
{
"languageserver": {
"zls" : {
"command": "command_or_path_to_zls",
"filetypes": ["zig"]
}
}
}- Install YouCompleteMeFrom here.
- Add these lines to your vimrc:
"ensure zig is a recognized filetype
autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.zig set filetype=zig
let g:ycm_language_server =
\ [
\{
\ 'name': 'zls',
\ 'filetypes': [ 'zig' ],
\ 'cmdline': [ '/path/to/zls_executable' ]
\ }
\ ]Requires Nvim 0.5 (HEAD)!
nvim-lspconfig already ships a configuration for zls. A simple init.vim might look like this:
call plug#begin('~/.config/nvim/plugged')
Plug 'neovim/nvim-lspconfig'
Plug 'nvim-lua/completion-nvim'
Plug 'ziglang/zig.vim'
call plug#end()
:lua << EOF
local lspconfig = require('lspconfig')
local on_attach = function(_, bufnr)
vim.api.nvim_buf_set_option(bufnr, 'omnifunc', 'v:lua.vim.lsp.omnifunc')
require('completion').on_attach()
end
local servers = {'zls'}
for _, lsp in ipairs(servers) do
lspconfig[lsp].setup {
on_attach = on_attach,
}
end
EOF
" Set completeopt to have a better completion experience
set completeopt=menuone,noinsert,noselect
" Enable completions as you type
let g:completion_enable_auto_popup = 1- Install the LanguageClient-neovim from here
- Edit your neovim configuration and add
zlsfor zig filetypes:
let g:LanguageClient_serverCommands = {
\ 'zig': ['~/code/zls/zig-out/bin/zls'],
\ };; Setup lsp-mode as desired.
;; See https://emacs-lsp.github.io/lsp-mode/page/installation/ for more information.
(require 'lsp-mode)
;; Either place zls in your PATH or add the following:
(setq lsp-zig-zls-executable "<path to zls>")- Enable the
lspmodule - Install the zig-mode package (add
(package! zig-mode)to yourpackages.elfile - Add the following to your
config.el:
(use-package! zig-mode
:hook ((zig-mode . lsp-deferred))
:custom (zig-format-on-save nil)
:config
(after! lsp-mode
(add-to-list 'lsp-language-id-configuration '(zig-mode . "zig"))
(lsp-register-client
(make-lsp-client
:new-connection (lsp-stdio-connection "<path to zls>")
:major-modes '(zig-mode)
:server-id 'zls))))sublime-zig-languageby @prime31- Supports basic language features
- Uses data provided by
src/datato perform builtin autocompletion
zig-lspby @xackus- Inspiration for
zls
- Inspiration for
known-foldersby @ziglibs- Provides API to access known folders on Linux, Windows and Mac OS
MIT