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 not configurable. Also, it does too much for 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 a plugin-crossing setting should be written by users in .vimrc.

Author

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

License

MIT License

Installation

Manually

1. Put all files under $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

In default, the statusline looks like: If you want a wombat colorscheme, add the following setting to your .vimrc (or _vimrc on Windows):

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

to get:

If you have installed vim-fugitive, the branch status is automatically available: but you find it annoying! Then you add to your .vimrc:

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

OK. The branch section has been removed. The g:lightline.active.left stands for the components which appear on the left hand side, for the active window.

You think that the read-only mark is not so cool: So you add the component setting (the following setting is effective with the patched font for vim-powerline):

  let g:lightline = {
        \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
        \ 'active': {
        \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ],
        \             [ 'readonly', 'filename', 'modified' ] ] },
        \ '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',
        \ 'active': {
        \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ],
        \             [ 'readonly', 'filename', 'modified' ] ] },
        \ 'component': {
        \   'readonly': '%{&readonly?"⭤":""}'
        \ },
        \ 'separator': { 'left': '⮀', 'right': '⮂' },
        \ 'subseparator': { 'left': '⮁', 'right': '⮃' }
        \ }

Hurrah! Cool!

Now, you look into a help file to find the marks annoying. Help files are read-only and no-modifiable? We know, of course! OK, so you again edit your .vimrc.

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

Huh? Weird! The component does not collapse even if it has no information! In order to avoid this, you set expressions to component_visible_condition, which should become 1 only when the corresponding components have information.

  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': '⮃' }
        \ }

Okay. Works nice.

However, you may wonder we cannot gather these settings. Or, if you want to do something more complicated?

In fact, the components can be created using functions.

  let g:lightline = {
        \ 'colorscheme': 'wombat',
        \ 'active': {
        \   'left': [ [ 'mode', 'paste' ],
        \             [ 'readonly', 'filename', 'modified' ] ] },
        \ 'component_function': {
        \   '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

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' ],
        \             [ 'filename' ] ] },
        \ 'component_function': {
        \   'filename': 'MyFilename',
        \   '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! MyFilename()
    return ('' != MyReadonly() ? MyReadonly() . ' ' : '') .
         \ ('' != expand('%t') ? expand('%t') : '[No Name]') .
         \ ('' != MyModified() ? ' ' . MyModified() : '')
  endfunction

Define your own filename component. Your component has priority over the default component. Looks nice.

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

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

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

My setting

Here's my setting. 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' && &ro ? '⭤' : ''
  endfunction
  function! MyFilename()
    return ('' != MyReadonly() ? MyReadonly() . ' ' : '') .
          \ (&ft == 'vimfiler' ? vimfiler#get_status_string() : 
          \  &ft == 'unite' ? unite#get_status_string() : 
          \  &ft == 'vimshell' ? substitute(b:vimshell.current_dir,expand('~'),'~','') : 
          \ '' != expand('%t') ? expand('%t') : '[No Name]') .
          \ ('' != MyModified() ? ' ' . MyModified() : '')
  endfunction
  function! MyFugitive()
    return &ft !~? 'vimfiler\|gundo' && exists('*fugitive#head') && len(fugitive#head()) ? '⭠ '.fugitive#head() : ''
  endfunction
  function! MyFileformat()
    return winwidth('.') > 60 ? &fileformat : ''
  endfunction
  function! MyFiletype()
    return winwidth('.') > 60 ? (strlen(&filetype) ? &filetype : 'no ft') : ''
  endfunction
  function! MyFileencoding()
    return winwidth('.') > 60 ? (strlen(&fenc) ? &fenc : &enc) : ''
  endfunction
  function! MyMode()
    return winwidth('.') > 60 ? lightline#mode() : ''
  endfunction

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

Before:

After:

Nice looking, isn't it?