lightline.vim

A light and configurable statusline for Vim

https://github.com/itchyny/lightline.vim

powerline theme (default)

wombat (with the patched font)

jellybeans (with the patched font)

solarized theme (dark)

solarized theme (light)

landscape theme (with the patched font)

With branch name, read-only mark and modified mark.

landscape is my colorscheme, which is a high-contrast cui-supported colorscheme, available at https://github.com/itchyny/landscape.vim

Why yet another clone of powerline?

• vim-powerline is a nice plugin, but deprecated.
• powerline is a nice plugin, but difficult to configure.
• vim-airline is a nice plugin, but it uses too much functions of other plugins, which should be done by users in .vimrc.

Spirit of this plugin

• Minimalism. The core script is very small.
• Configurability. You can create your own component and easily add to the statusline.
• Orthogonality. Any plugin should not change the settings of another plugin. Such plugin-crossing settings should be written by users in .vimrc.

Author

itchyny (https://github.com/itchyny)

License

MIT License

Installation

Manually

1. Put all files under $VIM.

Pathogen

1. Install with the following command.

    git clone https://github.com/itchyny/lightline.vim ~/.vim/bundle/lightline.vim
   

Vundle (https://github.com/gmarik/vundle)

1. Add the following configuration to your .vimrc.

    Bundle 'itchyny/lightline.vim'
   

2. Install with :BundleInstall.

NeoBundle (https://github.com/Shougo/neobundle.vim)

1. Add the following configuration to your .vimrc.

    NeoBundle 'itchyny/lightline.vim'
   

2. Install with :NeoBundleInstall.

Configuration tutorial

By default, the statusline looks like:

If you use the wombat colorscheme, add the following settings to your .vimrc (or _vimrc on Windows):

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ }

to get:

If your statusline looks like

and the cool statuslines appear only on :vsp, add

set laststatus=2

to your .vimrc.

If you have problem like

then add

export TERM=xterm-256color

to your .*shrc and add

if !has('gui_running')
  set t_Co=256
endif

to your .vimrc.

If the colors of the statusline do not change from the default colors, move the settings of g:lightline before setting the colorscheme.

Colors appear correctly? Now let's see how to change the appearance.

You may think that the default read-only mark is not so cool:

Then edit the read-only component. The lightline components are stored in g:lightline.component. So you add the settings of g:lightline.component.readonly in your .vimrc. (the following settings are effective with the patched font for vim-powerline):

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'component': {
      \   'readonly': '%{&readonly?"⭤":""}',
      \ }
      \ }

How nice!

But the boundaries are quadrilateral. You may miss the powerline. You have installed a cool font for powerlines, so you can use it.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'component': {
      \   'readonly': '%{&readonly?"⭤":""}',
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '⮀', 'right': '⮂' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '⮁', 'right': '⮃' }
      \ }

Hurrah! Cool!

If your statusline looks like:

the patched font is not installed.

There are two kinds of patched fonts:

• The patched fonts for vim-powerline: see https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-powerline/tree/develop/fontpatcher
• The patched fonts for powerline: see https://github.com/Lokaltog/powerline-fonts

Create or download a font and install it. And add the guifont setting to your .vimrc (see :help 'guifont' for more detail). If you are using the vim in a terminal, the font cannot be controlled in .vimrc. Open the setting of the terminal and select the patched font.

This tutorial is based on the former, the font for vim-powerline (Inconsolata for Powerline). If you have installed the patched font for powerline, use the following settings instead.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'component': {
      \   'readonly': '%{&readonly?"":""}',
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '', 'right': '' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '', 'right': '' }
      \ }

If you have installed the font for powerline and your statusline looks like

remove

set ambiwidth=double

from your .vimrc. If you want to keep this setting, use the patched font for vim-powerline.

• https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-powerline/tree/develop/fontpatcher

If you will not install a patched font, use ascii characters like:

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'component': {
      \   'readonly': '%{&readonly?"x":""}',
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '', 'right': '' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '|', 'right': '|' }
      \ }

Almost all of things go well with the patched font but if the triangle looks weird:

If you are using iTerm2, change the following settings of iTerm2:

• set Profiles>Colors>Minimum contrast to the Lowest.
• set Profiles>Window>Transparency to the Opaquest.

For other terminals, this weird-triangle problem will be resolved by disabling transparency or contrast adjustment.

Now, let us get back to the tutorial (with the patched font for vim-powerline). You look into a help file to find the marks annoying.

Help files are read-only and no-modifiable? We know that! OK, so you again edit the components.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'component': {
      \   'readonly': '%{&filetype=="help"?"":&readonly?"⭤":""}',
      \   'modified': '%{&filetype=="help"?"":&modified?"+":&modifiable?"":"-"}'
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '⮀', 'right': '⮂' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '⮁', 'right': '⮃' }
      \ }

Huh? Weird! The components do not collapse even if they have no information! In order to avoid this situation, you set expressions to g:lightline.component_visible_condition, which should become 1 only when the corresponding components have information.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'component': {
      \   'readonly': '%{&filetype=="help"?"":&readonly?"⭤":""}',
      \   'modified': '%{&filetype=="help"?"":&modified?"+":&modifiable?"":"-"}'
      \ },
      \ 'component_visible_condition': {
      \   'readonly': '(&filetype!="help"&& &readonly)',
      \   'modified': '(&filetype!="help"&&(&modified||!&modifiable))'
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '⮀', 'right': '⮂' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '⮁', 'right': '⮃' }
      \ }

Okay. It works nice.

How does lightline decide the components to show in the statusline? It's very simple. The variables to select components are g:lightline.active.left and g:lightline.active.left. For example, you add the g:lightline.active.left in .vimrc.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'active': {
      \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ],
      \             [ 'readonly', 'filename', 'modified' ] ]
      \ },
      \ 'component': {
      \   'readonly': '%{&filetype=="help"?"":&readonly?"⭤":""}',
      \   'modified': '%{&filetype=="help"?"":&modified?"+":&modifiable?"":"-"}'
      \ },
      \ 'component_visible_condition': {
      \   'readonly': '(&filetype!="help"&& &readonly)',
      \   'modified': '(&filetype!="help"&&(&modified||!&modifiable))'
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '⮀', 'right': '⮂' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '⮁', 'right': '⮃' }
      \ }

If the plugin arranges all the components (in a situation you set paste and the file .vimrc is read-only, try to modify):

The mode component, the paste component, read-only component, filename component and modified component in a row. Normally, the paste component does not show up.

If the file is not read-only (more common cases), the read-only component does not show up.

Again look into g:lightline.active.left.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'active': {
      \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ],
      \             [ 'readonly', 'filename', 'modified' ] ] ...

And the screen shot of all the components.

The mode and paste component are displayed in the same group. The read-only, filename and modified component are in the second group. It corresponds to the structure of g:lightline.active.left. You can configure the components in the statusline by the following four variables:

• g:lightline.active.left
• g:lightline.active.right
• g:lightline.inactive.left
• g:lightline.inactive.right

Of course, your settings in .vimrc have priority over the default settings in lightline.

GitHub branch is important for us. And it is a default component in powerline and vim-powerline. However, lightline does not provide the branch feature by default.

In order to show the branch in the statusline, you firstly install the vim-fugitive plugin. Then edit the g:lightline in your .vimrc.

• Add your fugitive component to g:lightline.component.
• Add the condition when the fugitive component has information to g:lightline.component_visible_condition.
• Add the component by inserting 'fugitive' to g:lightline.active.left.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'active': {
      \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ],
      \             [ 'fugitive', 'readonly', 'filename', 'modified' ] ]
      \ },
      \ 'component': {
      \   'readonly': '%{&filetype=="help"?"":&readonly?"⭤":""}',
      \   'modified': '%{&filetype=="help"?"":&modified?"+":&modifiable?"":"-"}',
      \   'fugitive': '%{exists("*fugitive#head")?fugitive#head():""}'
      \ },
      \ 'component_visible_condition': {
      \   'readonly': '(&filetype!="help"&& &readonly)',
      \   'modified': '(&filetype!="help"&&(&modified||!&modifiable))',
      \   'fugitive': '(exists("*fugitive#head") && ""!=fugitive#head())'
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '⮀', 'right': '⮂' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '⮁', 'right': '⮃' }
      \ }

Okay, the branch component is added!

Now, you might get tired of setting both 'component' and 'component_visible_condition'. Or if you want to do something more complicated?

In fact, the components can be created using functions. Add your function names for components to g:lightline.component_function.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'active': {
      \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ],
      \             [ 'fugitive', 'readonly', 'filename', 'modified' ] ]
      \ },
      \ 'component_function': {
      \   'fugitive': 'MyFugitive',
      \   'readonly': 'MyReadonly',
      \   'modified': 'MyModified'
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '⮀', 'right': '⮂' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '⮁', 'right': '⮃' }
      \ }

function! MyModified()
  if &filetype == "help"
    return ""
  elseif &modified
    return "+"
  elseif &modifiable
    return ""
  else
    return ""
  endif
endfunction

function! MyReadonly()
  if &filetype == "help"
    return ""
  elseif &readonly
    return "⭤"
  else
    return ""
  endif
endfunction

function! MyFugitive()
  return exists('*fugitive#head') ? fugitive#head() : ''
endfunction

Fine and readable!

Finally, you come up with concatenating the three components: the read-only mark, the filename and the modified mark. Now you may know what to do.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
      \ 'active': {
      \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ],
      \             [ 'fugitive', 'filename' ] ]
      \ },
      \ 'component_function': {
      \   'fugitive': 'MyFugitive',
      \   'readonly': 'MyReadonly',
      \   'modified': 'MyModified',
      \   'filename': 'MyFilename'
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '⮀', 'right': '⮂' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '⮁', 'right': '⮃' }
      \ }

function! MyModified()
  if &filetype == "help"
    return ""
  elseif &modified
    return "+"
  elseif &modifiable
    return ""
  else
    return ""
  endif
endfunction

function! MyReadonly()
  if &filetype == "help"
    return ""
  elseif &readonly
    return "⭤"
  else
    return ""
  endif
endfunction

function! MyFugitive()
  return exists('*fugitive#head') ? fugitive#head() : ''
endfunction

function! MyFilename()
  return ('' != MyReadonly() ? MyReadonly() . ' ' : '') .
       \ ('' != expand('%:t') ? expand('%:t') : '[No Name]') .
       \ ('' != MyModified() ? ' ' . MyModified() : '')
endfunction

Oops! We forgot the cool mark for the branch component! (work with the patched font for vim-powerline)

function! MyFugitive()
  return exists('*fugitive#head') && strlen(fugitive#head()) ? '⭠ '.fugitive#head() : ''
endfunction

How cool!!!

Of course, you can name your component as you wish.

let g:lightline = {
    \ 'active': {
    \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ],
    \             [ 'my_component' ] ] },
    \ 'component_function': {
    \   'my_component': 'MyComponent', ...

This is the end of the tutorial. For more information, see :help lightline. Good luck with your nice statuslines.

My settings

I show my settings. I use the patched font for vim-powerline.

let g:lightline = {
      \ 'colorscheme': 'landscape',
      \ 'mode_map': { 'c': 'NORMAL' },
      \ 'active': {
      \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ], [ 'fugitive', 'filename' ] ]
      \ },
      \ 'component_function': {
      \   'modified': 'MyModified',
      \   'readonly': 'MyReadonly',
      \   'fugitive': 'MyFugitive',
      \   'filename': 'MyFilename',
      \   'fileformat': 'MyFileformat',
      \   'filetype': 'MyFiletype',
      \   'fileencoding': 'MyFileencoding',
      \   'mode': 'MyMode',
      \ },
      \ 'separator': { 'left': '⮀', 'right': '⮂' },
      \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '⮁', 'right': '⮃' }
      \ }

function! MyModified()
  return &ft =~ 'help\|vimfiler\|gundo' ? '' : &modified ? '+' : &modifiable ? '' : '-'
endfunction

function! MyReadonly()
  return &ft !~? 'help\|vimfiler\|gundo' && &readonly ? '⭤' : ''
endfunction

function! MyFilename()
  return ('' != MyReadonly() ? MyReadonly() . ' ' : '') .
        \ (&ft == 'vimfiler' ? vimfiler#get_status_string() : 
        \  &ft == 'unite' ? unite#get_status_string() : 
        \  &ft == 'vimshell' ? vimshell#get_status_string() :
        \ '' != expand('%:t') ? expand('%:t') : '[No Name]') .
        \ ('' != MyModified() ? ' ' . MyModified() : '')
endfunction

function! MyFugitive()
  return &ft !~? 'vimfiler\|gundo' && exists('*fugitive#head') && strlen(fugitive#head()) ? '⭠ '.fugitive#head() : ''
endfunction

function! MyFileformat()
  return winwidth('.') > 70 ? &fileformat : ''
endfunction

function! MyFiletype()
  return winwidth('.') > 70 ? (strlen(&filetype) ? &filetype : 'no ft') : ''
endfunction

function! MyFileencoding()
  return winwidth('.') > 70 ? (strlen(&fenc) ? &fenc : &enc) : ''
endfunction

function! MyMode()
  return winwidth('.') > 60 ? lightline#mode() : ''
endfunction

When the current window width is narrow, the mode component and the file information component collapse. For example, the gundo buffer is narrow.

Before:

After:

Nice looking, isn't it?