Neovim Lua: Error while calling lua chunk [...] '' expected near 'local'

Question

When I run Neovim (NVIM v0.6.1), I get

Error detected while processing /home/ecarroll/.config/nvim/init.lua:
E5113: Error while calling lua chunk: vim.lua:63: /home/ecarroll/.config/nvim/lua/plugins.lua:81: '<eof>' expected near 'local'
stack traceback:
        [C]: in function 'error'
        vim.lua:63: in function <vim.lua:57>
        [C]: in function 'require'
        /home/ecarroll/.config/nvim/init.lua:56: in main chunk

Line 81 has this code which I basically copied from the Packer docs,

local on_attach = function(client, bufnr)
  -- Enable completion triggered by <c-x><c-o>
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_option(bufnr, 'omnifunc', 'v:lua.vim.lsp.omnifunc')
  
  -- Mappings.
  -- See `:help vim.lsp.*` for documentation on any of the below functions
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', '<Leader>f',  '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.formatting()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', 'gD',         '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.declaration()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', 'gd',         '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.definition()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', 'K',          '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.hover()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', 'gi',         '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.implementation()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', '<C-k>',      '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.signature_help()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', '<Leader>wa', '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.add_workspace_folder()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', '<Leader>wr', '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.remove_workspace_folder()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', '<Leader>wl', '<cmd>lua print(vim.inspect(vim.lsp.buf.list_workspace_folders()))<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', '<Leader>D',  '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.type_definition()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', '<Leader>rn', '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.rename()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', '<Leader>ca', '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.code_action()<CR>', opts)
  vim.api.nvim_buf_set_keymap(bufnr, 'n', 'gr',         '<cmd>lua vim.lsp.buf.references()<CR>', opts)

end

How can I solve the error,

Error while calling lua chunk [...] '' expected near 'local'

Answer 1

In my case this was because I had this in my file,

return require('packer').startup(function()
  -- stuff
end)

And then after that I had

let on_attach = function(client, bufnr)
  ...
end

And that error, which leaves a lot to be desired essentially amounts to "dead code after return not allowed".

---

I would open an issue on Lua for a more informative error, but they're using mailing lists.