Visual glitches when displaying binary file

[adam-jw-casey]

Summary

Opening a binary file results in visual bugs. It seems like lines are overflowing into the next line.

I know that helix is not intended for editing binary files, but a user might still open a binary by accident (like I did) or want to look for strings and such interactively in a binary. neovim handles this gracefully and helix should too.

Reproduction Steps

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a binary file* in helix.
2. Observe that the view is broken up:

*I encountered this specifically with a FreeCAD file (.FCBak) - I expect other binary files would have the same effect but I haven't tested it.

I've attached an example file in a comment below.

Helix log

Nothing in the log jumps out as interesting but I'm including it anyways.

~/.cache/helix/helix.log

2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/Dockerfile.*", re: "(?-u)^.*/Dockerfile\\..*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('D'), Literal('o'), Literal('c'), Literal('k'), Literal('e'), Literal('r'), Literal('f'), Literal('i'), Literal('l'), Literal('e'), Literal('.'), ZeroOrMore]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/dockerfile.*", re: "(?-u)^.*/dockerfile\\..*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('d'), Literal('o'), Literal('c'), Literal('k'), Literal('e'), Literal('r'), Literal('f'), Literal('i'), Literal('l'), Literal('e'), Literal('.'), ZeroOrMore]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/Containerfile.*", re: "(?-u)^.*/Containerfile\\..*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('C'), Literal('o'), Literal('n'), Literal('t'), Literal('a'), Literal('i'), Literal('n'), Literal('e'), Literal('r'), Literal('f'), Literal('i'), Literal('l'), Literal('e'), Literal('.'), ZeroOrMore]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/containerfile.*", re: "(?-u)^.*/containerfile\\..*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('c'), Literal('o'), Literal('n'), Literal('t'), Literal('a'), Literal('i'), Literal('n'), Literal('e'), Literal('r'), Literal('f'), Literal('i'), Literal('l'), Literal('e'), Literal('.'), ZeroOrMore]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/.*ignore", re: "(?-u)^.*/\\..*ignore$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('.'), ZeroOrMore, Literal('i'), Literal('g'), Literal('n'), Literal('o'), Literal('r'), Literal('e')]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/BUILD.*", re: "(?-u)^.*/BUILD\\..*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('B'), Literal('U'), Literal('I'), Literal('L'), Literal('D'), Literal('.'), ZeroOrMore]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/.env.*", re: "(?-u)^.*/\\.env\\..*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('.'), Literal('e'), Literal('n'), Literal('v'), Literal('.'), ZeroOrMore]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/.envrc.*", re: "(?-u)^.*/\\.envrc\\..*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('.'), Literal('e'), Literal('n'), Literal('v'), Literal('r'), Literal('c'), Literal('.'), ZeroOrMore]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/conf/*/*.{inc,conf}", re: "(?-u)^.*/conf/.*/.*\\.(?:conf|inc)$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('c'), Literal('o'), Literal('n'), Literal('f'), Literal('/'), ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), ZeroOrMore, Literal('.'), Alternates([Tokens([Literal('c'), Literal('o'), Literal('n'), Literal('f')]), Tokens([Literal('i'), Literal('n'), Literal('c')])])]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "*/Jenkinsfile.*", re: "(?-u)^.*/Jenkinsfile\\..*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false, backslash_escape: true, empty_alternates: false }, tokens: Tokens([ZeroOrMore, Literal('/'), Literal('J'), Literal('e'), Literal('n'), Literal('k'), Literal('i'), Literal('n'), Literal('s'), Literal('f'), Literal('i'), Literal('l'), Literal('e'), Literal('.'), ZeroOrMore]) }
2025-02-15T11:17:28.084 globset [DEBUG] built glob set; 1 literals, 0 basenames, 0 extensions, 0 prefixes, 145 suffixes, 11 required extensions, 10 regexes
2025-02-15T11:17:28.096 helix_vcs [DEBUG] Error {
    context: "failed to open git repo",
    source: Discover(
        NoGitRepository {
            path: "~/CAD/Ankarsrum Pasta Maker Adapter",
        },
    ),
}
2025-02-15T11:17:28.096 helix_vcs [DEBUG] failed to open diff base for ~/CAD/Ankarsrum Pasta Maker Adapter/Ankarsrum Pasta Maker Adapter.20241103-174325.FCBak
2025-02-15T11:17:28.096 helix_vcs [DEBUG] Error {
    context: "failed to open git repo",
    source: Discover(
        NoGitRepository {
            path: "~/CAD/Ankarsrum Pasta Maker Adapter",
        },
    ),
}
2025-02-15T11:17:28.096 helix_vcs [DEBUG] failed to obtain current head name for ~/CAD/Ankarsrum Pasta Maker Adapter/Ankarsrum Pasta Maker Adapter.20241103-174325.FCBak
2025-02-15T11:17:28.096 helix_view::editor [DEBUG] editor status: Loaded 1 file.
2025-02-15T11:17:28.096 helix_tui::backend::crossterm [DEBUG] The keyboard enhancement protocol is not supported in this terminal (checked in 237.954µs)
2025-02-15T11:17:28.099 helix_view::document [DEBUG] id 1 modified - last saved: 0, current: 0
2025-02-15T11:17:28.102 helix_view::document [DEBUG] id 1 modified - last saved: 0, current: 0
2025-02-15T11:17:28.344 helix_term::application [DEBUG] received editor event: IdleTimer
2025-02-15T11:17:28.481 helix_term::application [DEBUG] received editor event: Redraw
2025-02-15T11:17:28.488 helix_view::document [DEBUG] id 1 modified - last saved: 0, current: 0
2025-02-15T11:17:29.459 helix_view::document [DEBUG] id 1 modified - last saved: 0, current: 0
2025-02-15T11:17:29.705 helix_term::application [DEBUG] received editor event: IdleTimer
2025-02-15T11:17:29.761 helix_term::commands::typed [DEBUG] quitting...
2025-02-15T11:17:29.768 helix_view::document [DEBUG] id 1 modified - last saved: 0, current: 0
2025-02-15T11:17:29.882 helix_term::commands::typed [DEBUG] quitting...
2025-02-15T11:17:29.882 helix_view::document [DEBUG] id 1 modified - last saved: 0, current: 0
2025-02-15T11:17:29.882 helix_term::job [DEBUG] waiting on jobs...
2025-02-15T11:17:29.882 helix_term::job [DEBUG] waiting on jobs...

Platform

Fedora 41

Terminal Emulator

xfce4-terminal v1.1.4

Installation Method

dnf

Helix Version

helix 25.01.1 (e7ac2fc)

[adam-jw-casey]

Here is a file that reproduces the bug. It's the first line of an FCBak file, renamed to .txt because otherwise Github won't let me upload it.

binary_file.txt

[adam-jw-casey]

I checked and the issue does not occur in a buffer filled with random but valid Unicode.

[kirawi]

I suspect it contains sequences that are parsed as ansi control codes.

[adam-jw-casey]

I suspect it contains sequences that are parsed as ansi control codes.

That's likely. I do still think helix should handle it more gracefully though, like neovim does.

[kirawi]

I'll check the file later, but it would be a duplicate of #12134 if so.