Syntax highlighting is not working reliably

Versions

This bug is reproducible in:

• the latest version of the extension (below)
• the latest version of the language server (below)

Extension

v2.19.0

Language Server

terraform-ls 0.25.2

VS Code

Version: 1.64.2
Commit: f80445acd5a3dadef24aa209168452a3d97cc326
Date: 2022-02-09T22:00:58.347Z
Electron: 13.5.2
Chromium: 91.0.4472.164
Node.js: 14.16.0
V8: 9.1.269.39-electron.0
OS: Darwin x64 20.6.0

Operating System

macOS Big Sur 11.6.2 (20G314)

Terraform Version

$ terraform version
Terraform v1.1.5
on darwin_amd64

Steps To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Create a main.tf with the content of the screenshots, the syntax highlight does not work.
2. The default language will be “Terraform”
3. Hit Ctrl+Shift+P and “Change Language Mode -> terraform-vars”
4. The syntax highlight works

This is weird and feels not intended.

Include any relevant Terraform configuration or project structure:

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "main" {
  name     = local.resource_group_name
  location = var.location

  tags = local.all_tags
}

Please, see screenshots attached.

Weirdly working terraform-vars:

Not working Terraform:

Expected Behavior

Syntax highlighting should just work. Why are there two languages anyway?

Actual Behavior

Syntax highlighting does not work. 😦

Additional context

Extension bisect/only enabling Hashicorp Terraform extension did not fix the problem.

[dbanck]

FYI, I’ve created two issues tracking the described problems:

• hashicorp/syntax#24
• https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-ls/issues/805

[Rabattkarte]

Oh well, with your explanation I just realized that I had completely wrong (other?) assumptions about what the extension provides. I thought the keyword var. will be highlighted to aid with visual reviews. But now I understood that e.g. var.existing_var will be displayed inline (without any highlighting) since this is a known reference. This becomes even clearer when I hover over that variable.

---

I really learned a lot about debugging vscode extensions as well as how they work internally. I guess there is nothing to “fix” in this issue. I see exactly the same improvement that you mentioned:

Highlighting should be more consistent and intuitive. So we will create separate issues for each enhancement.

I’m closing this issue now since it is none. Feel free to re-open it if needed.

Thanks again! 🥇