indent-bar

This plugin displays thin vertical lines at each indentation level for code indented with spaces.

Requirements

This plugin works only on Vim 7.3+ as it uses the newly added feature conceal in Vim 7.3.

Installation

There are three ways to install indent-bar:

• 1. built-in auto-load directory
• 1. built-in package management (Vim 8.0+, see :h package)
• 2. third party plugin manager

1) auto-load directory

We can simply put indent-bar/* in Vim auto-load directory:

• ~/.vim (Linux)
• ~/vimfiles (Windows)

2) built-in package management

Vim 8.0 adds a long missing feature: built-in package management, we can do as below to install indent-bar:

git clone https://github.com/juniway/indent-bar.git ~/.vim/pack/vendor/start/indent-bar
vim -u NONE -c "helptags  ~/.vim/pack/vendor/start/indent-bar/doc" -c "q"

3) third party package manager

There are multiple options when you decide to use third party package manager, please follow the guidelines respectively.

• for Pathogen, please place indent-bar in ~/.vim/bundle
• for Vundle, add Plugin 'juniway/indent-bar' to your ~/.vimrc
• for Plug, add Plug 'juniway/indent-bar to your ~/.vimrc

Customization

To apply customization, apply the variable definitions to your .vimrc file.

Change Character Color

indent-bar will overwrite 'conceal' color with grey by default. If you want to highlight conceal color with your colorscheme, disable by:

let g:indent_bar_set_colors = 0

Or you can customize conceal color by:

" Vim
let g:indent_bar_color_term = 239

" GVim
let g:indent_bar_color_gui = '#A4E57E'

" none X terminal
let g:indent_bar_color_tty_light = 7 " (default: 4)
let g:indent_bar_color_dark = 1 " (default: 2)

" Background (Vim, GVim)
let g:indent_bar_bgcolor_term = 202
let g:indent_bar_bgcolor_gui = '#FF5F00'

Change Indent Char

Vim and GVim

let g:indent_bar_char = 'c'

where 'c' can be any ASCII character. You can also use one of ¦, ┆, │, ⎸, or ▏ to display more beautiful lines. However, these characters will only work with files whose encoding is UTF-8.

or

let g:indent_bar_char_list = ['|', '¦', '┆', '┊']

each indent level has a distinct character.

Change Conceal Behaviour

This plugin enables the Vim conceal feature which automatically hides stretches of text based on syntax highlighting. This setting will apply to all syntax items.

For example, users utilizing the built in json.vim syntax file will no longer see quotation marks in their JSON files.

indent-bar will overwrite your "concealcursor" and "conceallevel" with default value:

let g:indent_bar_concealcursor = 'inc'
let g:indent_bar_conceallevel = 2

You can customize these settings, but the plugin will not function if conceallevel is not set to 1 or 2.

If you want to keep your conceal setting, put this line to your vim dotfile:

let g:indent_bar_set_conceal = 0

See the VIM Reference Manual for more information on the conceal feature.

Disable by default

let g:indent_bar_enabled = 0

Commands

:IndentBarToggle toggles lines on and off.

Font patching

If you find all the standard unicode and ASCII characters too obtrusive, you might consider patching your font with the indent-bar-dotted-guide.eps glyph provided. FontForge makes the process amazingly simple:

1. Download and install FontForge.
2. Locate and open your terminal/gVim font.
3. Open the font in FontForge, choose Goto from the View menu and select Private Use Area from the drop down box.
4. In the private use area, locate a blank spot for the glyph. Make a note of the code, e.g. U+E0A3.
5. Double-click the selected code point to open the font drawing tool.
6. From the File menu, select Import... and locate the indent-bar-dotted-guide.eps file.
7. Once imported, choose File -> Generate Fonts and choose a location and file type for the new font.

Once completed, your new font will contain the more subtle dotted guide and all you have to do is set that glyph to g:indent_bar_char in your .vimrc file.

Screenshots

License

• MIT