Tmux prefix highlight

Plugin that highlights when you press tmux prefix key. Inspired by this thread on stackoverflow.

Many thanks to @obxhdx for showing me this trick.

Prefix off:

Prefix on:

Usage

Just add #{prefix_highlight} to your left/right status bar.

set -g status-right '#{prefix_highlight} | %a %Y-%m-%d %H:%M'

The plugin can also be configured to show when copy mode is active; see the Configurations section for details.

Installation with Tmux Plugin Manager (recommended)

Add plugin to the list of TPM plugins:

set -g @plugin 'tmux-plugins/tmux-prefix-highlight'

Press prefix + I to install it.

Manual Installation

Clone the repo:

$ git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tmux-prefix-highlight.git ~/clone/path

Add this line to your .tmux.conf:

run-shell ~/clone/path/prefix_highlight.tmux

Reload TMUX environment with:

$ tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

Configurations

The colors used for the prefix highlight can be configured:

set -g @prefix_highlight_fg 'white' # default is 'colour231'
set -g @prefix_highlight_bg 'blue'  # default is 'colour04'

The plugin can also be configured to show when copy or synchronized panes mode is active. If enabled, the #{prefix_highlight} token will be replaced with the string Copy when copy mode is enabled and Sync for synchronized panes. The style for copy and sync mode can be configured as a comma-separated list of colors and attributes:

set -g @prefix_highlight_show_copy_mode 'on'
set -g @prefix_highlight_copy_mode_attr 'fg=black,bg=yellow,bold' # default is 'fg=default,bg=yellow'
set -g @prefix_highlight_show_sync_mode 'on'
set -g @prefix_highlight_sync_mode_attr 'fg=black,bg=green' # default is 'fg=default,bg=yellow'

The prefix, copy and sync prompts can also be configured:

set -g @prefix_highlight_prefix_prompt 'Wait'
set -g @prefix_highlight_copy_prompt 'Copy'
set -g @prefix_highlight_sync_prompt 'Sync'

Additionally, the plugin can be configured to attach optional affixes to the value contained in #{prefix_highlight}. (e.g. < ^B >)

set -g @prefix_highlight_output_prefix '< '
set -g @prefix_highlight_output_suffix ' >'

The empty (shown when prefix is off) prompt and attribute can be configured, It is useful for aligning segments.

set -g @prefix_highlight_empty_prompt '        '          # default is '' (empty char)
set -g @prefix_highlight_empty_attr 'fg=default,bg=green' # default is 'fg=default,bg=default'

Defaultly, empty prompt can't be attached optional affixes. If you want attach affixes on empty prompt, config @prefix_highlight_empty_has_affixes to on.

set -g @prefix_highlight_empty_has_affixes 'on' # default is 'off'
set -g @prefix_highlight_empty_prompt 'Tmux'
set -g @prefix_highlight_output_prefix '< '
set -g @prefix_highlight_output_suffix ' >'

License

MIT