Toggle Snacks.image

[herrhodel]

I try to add a toggle to Snacks.images. I managed to toggle the enabled option, however, already rendered images from open buffers are not cleared. Even when open and close it again. I could not find any clear method in the Snacks.image module.

Thanks a lot for any help :)

local image_toggle = Snacks.toggle.new({
  id = "snacks_image",
  name = "Snacks Image Preview",
  get = function()
    return Snacks.image and Snacks.image.config.enabled == true
  end,
  set = function(state)
    Snacks.image.config.enabled = state
    Snacks.image.config.doc.enabled = state
  end,
})
map("n", "<leader>uP", function()
  image_toggle:toggle()
end, { desc = "Toggle Snacks Image" })

[identity-wael]

There is a cleanup method one level below Snacks.image:

Snacks.image.doc.hover_close()
Snacks.image.placement.clean() -- all buffers; pass a buffer number to limit it

placement.clean() closes the tracked placements, including their terminal graphics and extmarks. It is also what Snacks uses when buffers are deleted and on exit.

One caveat for your toggle: changing config.enabled is not a full teardown. doc.attach() checks that flag when attaching, but an already attached inline renderer has its own update lifecycle and can create placements again. So the two calls above clear what's currently displayed; they are not, by themselves, a complete persistent disable/enable implementation.

For a robust runtime toggle the module would also need to suspend the existing inline/hover updates and restore them when enabled. That explains why mutating the setup options alone doesn't clear your open buffers, and why simply reopening a window may not reset it.

[herrhodel]

Whow, that was fast and it works! Thanks a lot 🚀

edit:
after a keystroke they appear again, now I got it what you meant with "So the two calls above clear what's currently displayed; they are not, by themselves, a complete persistent disable/enable implementation.". I guess this has to be implemented on Snacks level? Wouldn't it be cool to have a Snacks.toggle.snacks_options which toggles and reloads Snacks correctly for all submodules?

[identity-wael]

Yes — a supported runtime toggle would need lifecycle support in the image module. There is a specific reason for the keystroke behavior: inline.lua registers cursor/mode callbacks that call conceal(), and buffer/scroll callbacks that call update(). Neither checks config.enabled. Clearing placements doesn't unregister those callbacks or clear the renderer's own imgs/idx tables.

For an implementation, I'd start with image-specific enable/disable methods that suspend those callbacks, clear placements and renderer state, and refresh existing buffers on re-enable. Pending debounced updates and image-discovery callbacks also need to check the disabled state so they cannot recreate an image after cleanup.

Simply deleting the image autocommand group would still leave its nvim_buf_attach(..., { on_lines = update }) callback, so that alone isn't a complete fix either. doc._attach() also tracks whether a buffer was already attached, which a re-enable path needs to account for.

A generic Snacks.toggle wrapper could then call those methods. Making that work for all submodules would require each module to provide its own teardown/restart behavior; re-running setup alone would not guarantee it. My original two calls are only immediate cleanup, so I wouldn't present them as a working persistent toggle.

[vandalt]

Hi, just wanted to mention this is also discussed in #1739 with a first external implementation shared in this comment (suffering from the same issues discussed above) and a solution that hacks the snacks.image code directly in another comment