GNU bug report logs - #79944
30.2; bash-ts-mode fontification of command invocations

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Robert Brown <robert.brown <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 30.2; bash-ts-mode fontification of command invocations
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2025 15:13:07 -0500

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

With bash-ts-mode every invocation of a command in a bash script is
incorrectly fontified using face font-lock-function-name-face.  In
non-ts modes font-lock-function-name-face has historically only been
used to fontify a function name where the function is defined, not every
place where it's used.  As an example, let's say we have this bash
script:

    logout() { exit }
    who

Mode sh-mode fontifies "logout" using font-lock-function-name-face and
"who" using the default face.  Mode bash-ts-mode fontifies both "logout"
and "who" using font-lock-function-name-face.

I believe the bug is here in sh-script.el:

   :feature 'command
   :language 'bash
   `(;; function/non-builtin command calls
     (command_name (word) @font-lock-function-name-face)

The last line should be deleted.



In GNU Emacs 30.2 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) of 2025-11-19 built on
 chuwi
System Description: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS

Configured using:
 'configure --without-x
 --prefix=/home/brown/local/software/package/emacs-30.2'

Configured features:
DBUS GMP GNUTLS LIBSELINUX LIBXML2 MODULES NATIVE_COMP NOTIFY INOTIFY
PDUMPER SECCOMP SOUND THREADS TREE_SITTER XIM ZLIB

Important settings:
  value of $LC_COLLATE: C
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix

Major mode: ELisp/l

Minor modes in effect:
  bug-reference-prog-mode: t
  company-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  global-eldoc-mode: t
  eldoc-mode: t
  show-paren-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  minibuffer-regexp-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t

Load-path shadows:
/home/brown/lib/emacs/lisp/yow hides
/home/brown/local/software/package/emacs-30.2/share/emacs/30.2/lisp/obsolete/yow

Features:
(shadow sort mail-extr warnings emacsbug message yank-media puny dired
dnd dired-loaddefs rfc822 mml mml-sec epa derived epg rfc6068 epg-config
gnus-util time-date mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231
mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums
mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils compile text-property-search comint
ansi-osc ansi-color comp-run comp-common cl-extra pp wid-edit descr-text
help-mode sh-script smie treesit executable mule-util
display-line-numbers ebuff-menu misearch multi-isearch bug-reference
thingatpt term/xterm xterm company-oddmuse company-keywords
company-etags etags fileloop generator xref project ring company-gtags
company-dabbrev-code company-dabbrev company-files company-clang
company-capf company-cmake company-semantic company-template
company-bbdb company pcase slime-autoloads cc-styles cc-align cc-engine
cc-vars cc-defs regexp-opt rx company-autoloads info tool-bar
dash-autoloads markdown-mode-autoloads package browse-url url url-proxy
url-privacy url-expand url-methods url-history url-cookie
generate-lisp-file url-domsuf url-util mailcap url-handlers url-parse
auth-source cl-seq eieio eieio-core cl-macs icons password-cache json
subr-x map byte-opt gv bytecomp byte-compile url-vars cl-loaddefs cl-lib
rmc iso-transl tooltip cconv eldoc paren electric uniquify ediff-hook
vc-hooks lisp-float-type elisp-mode tabulated-list replace newcomment
text-mode lisp-mode prog-mode register page tab-bar menu-bar rfn-eshadow
isearch easymenu timer select mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax font-core
term/tty-colors frame minibuffer nadvice seq simple cl-generic
indonesian philippine cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese
tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese eucjp-ms cp51932 hebrew greek
romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese
composite emoji-zwj charscript charprop case-table epa-hook
jka-cmpr-hook help abbrev obarray oclosure cl-preloaded button loaddefs
theme-loaddefs faces cus-face macroexp files window text-properties
overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget keymap
hashtable-print-readable backquote threads dbusbind inotify multi-tty
make-network-process native-compile emacs)

Memory information:
((conses 16 213996 409137) (symbols 48 25457 72) (strings 32 100807 16993)
 (string-bytes 1 2588670) (vectors 16 20693) (vector-slots 8 297302 169755)
 (floats 8 77 193) (intervals 56 9953 1809) (buffers 992 19))

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #8 received at 79944 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Robert Brown <robert.brown <at> gmail.com>,
 Jostein Kjønigsen <jostein <at> kjonigsen.net>,
 Yuan Fu <casouri <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 79944 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#79944: 30.2; bash-ts-mode fontification of command invocations
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2025 08:59:15 +0200

> From: Robert Brown <robert.brown <at> gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2025 15:13:07 -0500
> 
> With bash-ts-mode every invocation of a command in a bash script is
> incorrectly fontified using face font-lock-function-name-face.  In
> non-ts modes font-lock-function-name-face has historically only been
> used to fontify a function name where the function is defined, not every
> place where it's used.  As an example, let's say we have this bash
> script:
> 
>     logout() { exit }
>     who
> 
> Mode sh-mode fontifies "logout" using font-lock-function-name-face and
> "who" using the default face.  Mode bash-ts-mode fontifies both "logout"
> and "who" using font-lock-function-name-face.
> 
> I believe the bug is here in sh-script.el:
> 
>    :feature 'command
>    :language 'bash
>    `(;; function/non-builtin command calls
>      (command_name (word) @font-lock-function-name-face)
> 
> The last line should be deleted.

Thanks.

Jostein and Yuan, WDYT?

Message #11 received at 79944 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jostein Kjønigsen <jostein <at> secure.kjonigsen.net>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: Yuan Fu <casouri <at> gmail.com>, Robert Brown <robert.brown <at> gmail.com>,
 Jostein Kjønigsen <jostein <at> kjonigsen.net>,
 79944 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#79944: 30.2; bash-ts-mode fontification of command invocations
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2025 08:51:20 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

> On 4 Dec 2025, at 07:59, Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> wrote:
> 
>> From: Robert Brown <robert.brown <at> gmail.com>
>> Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2025 15:13:07 -0500
>> 
>> With bash-ts-mode every invocation of a command in a bash script is
>> incorrectly fontified using face font-lock-function-name-face.

I agree this sounds like an error.

>>  In
>> non-ts modes font-lock-function-name-face has historically only been
>> used to fontify a function name where the function is defined, not every
>> place where it's used.

;; START short philosphy preamble :) 

Tree-sitter allows us to get much more rich and accurate grammar for a buffer than we've historically been able to achieve using reg-exp and Elisp.

Based on that I don't necessarily agree that the new tree-sitter based major-modes should mimic previous Reg-exp based major-modes down to the last detail. If so, why even implement them?

What I think makes more sense is using the richer grammar which we can now get for most languages to craft a consistent editing experience in Emacs, across all languages:

- classes being declared
- functions being defined
- variables being declared
- functions being called
- variables being referenced
- properties being declared
- string templating
- variables and function-calls made inside string-templates
- etc

All those constructs can now reliably be identified across most languages, and this gives us the possibility to fontify them consistently too.

For all tree-sitter major-modes I've been contributing to (at least 7), this has been my high-level goal, as opposed to mimicking whatever existed before.

;; END preamble


>>  As an example, let's say we have this bash
>> script:
>> 
>>    logout() { exit }
>>    who
>> 
>> Mode sh-mode fontifies "logout" using font-lock-function-name-face and
>> "who" using the default face.  Mode bash-ts-mode fontifies both "logout"

I would argue that semantically "who" is a command which does something. It's a function in form of an external binary or command.

So this would semantically constitute a function call.

>> and "who" using font-lock-function-name-face.

I agree this is inappropriate and incorrect. font-lock-function-name-face should ideally only be used for function-definitions. And this is not a function definition.

>> 
>> I believe the bug is here in sh-script.el:
>> 
>>   :feature 'command
>>   :language 'bash
>>   `(;; function/non-builtin command calls
>>     (command_name (word) @font-lock-function-name-face)

That seems to be the culprit indeed.

>> 
>> The last line should be deleted.

Disagree.

I think instead changing it to font-lock-function-call-face would make it more consistent with the semantics of the other tree-sitter based major-modes we currently have in Emacs.

> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Jostein and Yuan, WDYT?

If there's no big disagreements to the design, approach and philosophy outlined above, below is a patch which implements this change :) 

[0001-sh-script-Fix-fontification-of-command-invocations-i.patch (application/octet-stream, attachment)]

[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]

--
Jostein

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