Vala Language Server

Installation

We recommend using VSCode with the Vala plugin.

• Guix: guix install vala-language-server

• Arch Linux (via AUR): yay -S vala-language-server or yay -S vala-language-server-git

• Alpine Linux Edge: apk add vala-language-server

• Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04 and elementaryOS

  In order to install VLS, you need Vala 0.48 or later, which is only available by default on Ubuntu 20.04. You can get an up-to-date version of Vala from the Vala Team's Vala-Next repository. First you need to remove older Vala components:

  sudo apt-add-repository ppa:vala-team/next
  # If you have 0.40 and 0.48, there may be random issues popping out
  sudo apt-get remove valac-0.40-vapi "libvala.*-0.40-0"
  sudo apt-get install valac-0.48 valac-bin
  

  Now you can install the Vala Language Server:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:prince781/vala-language-server
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install vala-language-server
  

• Fedora 32:

  sudo dnf copr enable prince781/vala-language-server
  sudo dnf -y install vala-language-server
  

Table of Contents

• Vala Language Server
  • Table of Contents
  • Features
  • Dependencies
  • Setup
    • Installation
    • Building from Source
    • With Vim
    • With Visual Studio Code
    • With GNOME Builder
  • Contributing

Features

• [x] diagnostics
• [x] code completion
  • [x] basic (member access and scope-visible completion)
  • [ ] advanced (context-sensitive suggestions)
• [x] document symbol outline
• [x] goto definition
• [x] symbol references
• [x] goto implementation
• [x] signature help
  • active parameter support requires upstream changes in vala and is disabled by default. use meson -Dactive_parameter=true to enable. see this MR. VLS by default uses a workaround that should satisfy 90% of cases.
• [x] hover
• [x] symbol documentation
  • [x] basic (from comments)
  • [x] advanced (from GIR and VAPI files)
    • this feature may be a bit unstable. If it breaks things, use meson -Dparse_system_girs=false to disable
• [x] search for symbols in workspace
• [x] highlight active symbol in document
• [x] rename symbols
• [ ] snippets
• [ ] code actions
• [ ] workspaces
• [ ] supported IDEs (see Setup below):
  • [x] vim with vim-lsp plugin installed
  • [x] Visual Studio Code
  • [x] GNOME Builder >= 3.36 with custom VLS plugin enabled (see below)
  • [ ] IntelliJ
• [ ] supported project build systems
  • [x] meson
  • [x] compile_commands.json
  • [ ] autotoools
  • [ ] cmake

Dependencies

• glib-2.0
• gobject-2.0
• gio-2.0 and either gio-unix-2.0 or gio-windows-2.0
• gee-0.8
• json-glib-1.0
• jsonrpc-glib-1.0
• libvala-0.48 / vala-0.48 latest bugfix release
• you also need the posix VAPI, which should come preinstalled

Install dependencies with Guix

To launch a shell with build dependencies satisfied:

guix environment vala-language-server

Setup

Building from Source

meson -Dprefix=$PREFIX build
ninja -C build
sudo ninja -C build install

This will install vala-language-server to $PREFIX/bin

With Vim

Once you have VLS installed, you can use it with vim.

coc.nvim

1. Make sure coc.nvim is installed.
2. After successful installation, in Vim run :CocConfig and add a new entry for VLS to the languageserver property like below:

{
    "languageserver": {
        "vala": {
            "command": "vala-language-server",
            "filetypes": ["vala", "genie"]
        }
    }
}

vim-lsp

1. Make sure vim-lsp is installed
2. Add the following to your .vimrc:

if executable('vala-language-server')
  au User lsp_setup call lsp#register_server({
        \ 'name': 'vala-language-server',
        \ 'cmd': {server_info->[&shell, &shellcmdflag, 'vala-language-server']},
        \ 'whitelist': ['vala', 'genie'],
        \ })
endif

With Visual Studio Code

• Install the Vala plugin (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=prince781.vala)

With GNOME Builder

• Support is currently available with Builder 3.35 and up
• Running ninja -C build install should install the plugin to $PREFIX/lib/gnome-builder/plugins. Make sure you disable the GVLS plugin.

Contributing

Want to help out? Here are some helpful resources:

• If you're a newcomer, check out https://github.com/benwaffle/vala-language-server/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Anewcomers
• Gitter room is for project discussions: https://gitter.im/vala-language-server/community
• #vala on gimpnet/IRC is for general discussions about Vala and collaboration with upstream
• Vala wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Vala/
• libvala documentation:
  • https://benwaffle.github.io/vala-language-server/index.html
  • https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/vala/docs/index.html