Change cursor shape in different modes

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created March 28, 2009 · complexity basic · author Weltensegler · version 7.0

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To change the shape of the cursor in different modes, you can add the following into your vimrc.

For the Gnome-Terminal (version 2.26)

if has("autocmd")
  au InsertEnter * silent execute "!gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/cursor_shape ibeam"
  au InsertLeave * silent execute "!gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/cursor_shape block"
  au VimLeave * silent execute "!gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/cursor_shape ibeam"
endif

If you use more than one profile in gnome-terminal, you might have to adapt this to your profiles.

For Konsole in KDE4

let &t_SI = "\<Esc>]50;CursorShape=1\x7"
let &t_EI = "\<Esc>]50;CursorShape=0\x7"

This works with multiple tabs and windows.

See also

• Configuring the cursor

Comments

In a vim_use thread on 31 March 2009, Matt Wozniski made the following comments:

Re the Gnome code: Unless I'm misunderstanding something, this would not only work improperly when combined with tools like screen and dvtm, but also, when you have multiple terminals open, it would change the cursor shape in all of them!

Re the KDE4 code: That won't play nicely with gnu screen, or with dvtm, or any of the other terminal multiplexers out there.

Both will probably have problems with multiple tabs.

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