having trouble installing neovim plugin

Question

I am using neovim for the first time after using vim. I could use some neovim distro like NvChad or lazyVim. But i thought why now start from scratch and keep it lightweight.

I installed packer as my plugin manager

here's the code i put in the init.lua file .

-- Replace with your actual Neovim configuration file path
vim.cmd([[packadd packer.nvim]])

-- Replace with your actual Neovim configuration file path
local packer = require('packer')

packer.init({
    use{
        "kylenchui/nvim-surround",
        tag = "*",
        config = function()
            require("nvim-surround").setup({})
        end
    }
})


-- Disable compatibility with vi which can cause unexpected issues.
vim.opt.compatible = false

-- Enable type file detection. NeoVim will be able to try to detect the type of file in use.
vim.cmd('filetype on')




-- Enable plugins and load plugin for the detected file type.
vim.cmd('filetype plugin on')

-- Load an indent file for the detected file type.
vim.cmd('filetype indent on')

-- Enable syntax highlighting.
vim.cmd('syntax enable')

-- Set relative line numbers.
vim.opt.relativenumber = true

-- Set shift width to 4 spaces.
vim.opt.shiftwidth = 4

-- Set tab width to 4 columns.
vim.opt.tabstop = 4

-- Use space characters instead of tabs.
vim.opt.expandtab = true

-- Do not save backup files.
vim.opt.backup = false

-- Do not let cursor scroll below or above N number of lines when scrolling.
vim.opt.scrolloff = 10

-- Do not wrap lines. Allow long lines to extend as far as the line goes.
vim.opt.wrap = false

-- While searching through a file, incrementally highlight matching characters as you type.
vim.opt.incsearch = true

-- Ignore capital letters during search.
vim.opt.ignorecase = true

-- Override the ignorecase option if searching for capital letters.
-- This will allow you to search specifically for capital letters.
vim.opt.smartcase = true

-- Show partial command you type in the last line of the screen.
vim.opt.showcmd = true

-- Show the mode you are in on the last line.
vim.opt.showmode = true

-- Show matching words during a search.
vim.opt.showmatch = true

-- Use highlighting when doing a search.
vim.opt.hlsearch = true

and this is the error I am facing:

Error detected while processing /home/ishtiaqdishan/.c onfig/nvim/init.lua: E5113: Error while calling lua chunk: /home/ishtiaqdis han/.config/nvim/init.lua:9: attempt to call global 'u se' (a nil value) stack traceback: /home/ishtiaqdishan/.config/nvim/init.lua:9: i n main chunk

How can i fix this issue? Can someone help with the problem?

Tried multiple method to install packer Tried to fix some lua syntax

nothing worked

Answer 1

You use packer.init and looking at the quickstart part of the packer README.md, it seems like plugins are installed using packer.startup. In there, you have to pass a function that takes a parameter use.

...
local packer = require('packer')
packer.startup(function(use)
    use{
        "kylenchui/nvim-surround",
        tag = "*",
        config = function()
            require("nvim-surround").setup({})
        end
    }
end)
...

And packer.init seems to be for configuration of packer itself.