1 files changed, 13 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/runtime/lua/vim/lsp/rpc.lua b/runtime/lua/vim/lsp/rpc.lua
index bce1e9f35d..1ecac50df4 100644
--- a/runtime/lua/vim/lsp/rpc.lua
+++ b/runtime/lua/vim/lsp/rpc.lua
@@ -133,7 +133,8 @@ local function request_parser_loop()
   end
 end
 
-local client_errors = vim.tbl_add_reverse_lookup {
+--- Mapping of error codes used by the client
+local client_errors = {
   INVALID_SERVER_MESSAGE       = 1;
   INVALID_SERVER_JSON          = 2;
   NO_RESULT_CALLBACK_FOUND     = 3;
@@ -143,6 +144,8 @@ local client_errors = vim.tbl_add_reverse_lookup {
   SERVER_RESULT_CALLBACK_ERROR = 7;
 }
 
+client_errors = vim.tbl_add_reverse_lookup(client_errors)
+
 --- Constructs an error message from an LSP error object.
 ---
 ---@param err (table) The error object
@@ -230,7 +233,7 @@ function default_dispatchers.on_error(code, err)
 end
 
 --- Starts an LSP server process and create an LSP RPC client object to
---- interact with it.
+--- interact with it. Communication with the server is currently limited to stdio.
 ---
 ---@param cmd (string) Command to start the LSP server.
 ---@param cmd_args (table) List of additional string arguments to pass to {cmd}.
@@ -264,8 +267,6 @@ local function start(cmd, cmd_args, dispatchers, extra_spawn_params)
 
   if extra_spawn_params and extra_spawn_params.cwd then
       assert(is_dir(extra_spawn_params.cwd), "cwd must be a directory")
-  elseif not (vim.fn.executable(cmd) == 1) then
-      error(string.format("The given command %q is not executable.", cmd))
   end
   if dispatchers then
     local user_dispatchers = dispatchers
@@ -325,7 +326,14 @@ local function start(cmd, cmd_args, dispatchers, extra_spawn_params)
     end
     handle, pid = uv.spawn(cmd, spawn_params, onexit)
     if handle == nil then
-      error(string.format("start `%s` failed: %s", cmd, pid))
+      local msg = string.format("Spawning language server with cmd: `%s` failed", cmd)
+      if string.match(pid, "ENOENT") then
+        msg = msg .. ". The language server is either not installed, missing from PATH, or not executable."
+      else
+        msg = msg .. string.format(" with error message: %s", pid)
+      end
+      vim.notify(msg, vim.log.levels.WARN)
+      return
     end
   end