Indicator Statusline

The indicator statusline used to be a feature, from the old DEC VT level 4 terminals. Contour revives this feature to prominently show the terminal status.

Configuration

profiles:
    your_profile:
        status_line:
            indicator:
                left: "{VTType} │ {InputMode:Bold,Color=#C0C030}{TraceMode:Bold,Color=#FFFF00,Left= │ }{ProtectedMode:Bold,Left= │ }"
                middle: "{Tabs}{Title:Left= « ,Right= » ,Color=#20c0c0}"
                right: "{HistoryLineCount:Faint,Color=#c0c0c0} │ {Clock:Bold} "

Each segment, left, middle, and right may contain text to be displayed in the left, middle, or right segment of the indicator statusline.

This text may contain placeholders to be replaced by their respective dynamic content.

Variables

Variable	Description
`{Clock}`	current clock in HH:MM format
`{Command}`	yields the output of the given command, as specified via parameter `Program=...` (or the `{Command:<command>}` shorthand), re-run every `Interval=...` seconds
`{HistoryLineCount}`	number of lines in history (only available in primary screen)
`{Hyperlink}`	reveals the hyperlink at the given mouse location
`{InputMode}`	current input mode (e.g. INSERT, NORMAL, VISUAL)
`{ProtectedMode}`	indicates protected mode, if currently enabled
`{SearchMode}`	indicates search highlight mode, if currently active
`{SearchPrompt}`	the active search pattern, if any (read-only; search is typed into the find bar)
`{Tabs}`	indicates active tabs
`{Text}`	given text (makes only sense when customized with flags)
`{Title}`	current window title
`{VTType}`	currently active VT emulation type

Formatting Styles

Each Variable, as specified above, can be parametrized for customizing the look of it. The common syntax to these variables and their parameters looks as follows:

{VariableName:SomeFlag,SomeKey=SomeValue}

So parameters can be specified after a colon (:) as a comma separated list of flags and key/value pairs. A key/value pair is further split by equal sign (=).

The following list of formatting styles are supported:

Parameter	Description
`Left=TEXT`	text to show on the left side, if the variable is to be shown
`Right=TEXT`	text to show on the right side, if the variable is to be shown
`Color=#RRGGBB`	text color in hexadecimal RGB notation
`BackgroundColor=#RRGGBB`	background color in hexadecimal RGB notation
`Bold`	text in bold font face
`Italic`	text in italic font face
`Underline`	underline text (only one underline style can be active)
`CurlyUnderline`	curly underline text (only one underline style can be active)
`DoubleUnderline`	double underline text (only one underline style can be active)
`DottedUnderline`	dotted underline text (only one underline style can be active)
`DashedUnderline`	dashed underline text (only one underline style can be active)
`Blinking`	blinking text
`RapidBlinking`	rapid blinking text
`Overline`	overline text
`Inverse`	inversed text/background coloring

These parameters apply to all variables above.

The Command variable additionally takes these attributes:

Parameter	Description
`Program`	the command to execute (required, unless the shorthand below is used)
`Interval`	seconds between runs; default `10`. An invalid value or one `<= 0` selects the default.

{Command:Program=git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD,Interval=30,Bold}

Shorthand. {Command:<command>} takes everything after Command: verbatim as the command, so it may contain commas and =, but no styling and no Interval=: {Command:git log -1 --format=%h,%s}. A template naming Program= or Interval= is read in the attribute form instead; anything else is the shorthand, so {Command:Bold} runs a program named Bold (a style flag needs Program=). A command cannot contain }.

Execution. Commands run asynchronously in the background, so they never slow down rendering and, on Windows, never open a console window. The item shows the output of the previous run until a new one arrives, and is empty before the first run completes. A command that is still running after 5 seconds (or after its Interval, if that is shorter) is killed together with its child processes, and the previous output is kept.

Only the first line of the command's standard output is shown. Standard error and the exit status are ignored, and a command that cannot be started shows the operating system's error message.

Unlike popen, background processes a command leaves behind are killed as soon as the command finishes, even when it succeeds (the process group on Unix, the job object on Windows): a command like start notepad starts nothing that outlives it.

Tabs formatting extensions

The Tabs key allows additional styling through the following attributes:

Parameter	Description
`ActiveColor`	color of the active tab
`ActiveBackground`	background color of the active tab

{Tabs} versus the GUI tab bar

The indicator status line belongs to a pane, so with split panes a window draws one {Tabs} list per pane rather than one per window — several tab lists side by side, each describing the same tabs.

If what you want is the terminal look rather than the placement, set the global ui_style to terminal. That keeps the single window-level tab bar and every one of its affordances (drag to reorder, tear off, rename, close, context menu) but draws it cell-quantized, in the terminal font, with square corners and box-drawing separators.

{Tabs} remains fully supported, and the two can be used together.