barbar.nvim

Tabs, as understood by any other editor.

barbar.nvim is a tabline plugin with re-orderable tabs, icons, nice highlighting, sort-by commands, and a magic jump-to-buffer mode.

In jump-to-buffer mode, tabs display a target letter instead of their icon. Jump to any buffer by simply typing their target letter. Even better, the target letter stays constant for the lifetime of the buffer, so if you're working with a set of files you can even type the letter ahead from memory.

Table of content

• Features
• Install
• Usage
• Options

Features

Move

Re-order tabs

Jump-to-buffer

Letters stay constant for the lifetime of the buffer. By default, letters are assigned based on buffer name, eg README will get letter r. You can change this so that letters are assigned based on usability: home row (asdfjkl;gh) first, then other rows.

Sort tabs automatically

:BufferOrderByDirectory and :BufferOrderByLanguage

Clickable tabs (disabled by default, see note below)

Install

Is two dependencies a lot for one plugin? Yes it is. But is Barbar a very good tabline plugin? Also yes. Do you now understand why the Install section is strategically placed after the cool demos? Yes again.

Plug 'kyazdani42/nvim-web-devicons'
Plug 'romgrk/lib.kom'
Plug 'romgrk/barbar.nvim'

You can skip the dependency on 'kyazdani42/nvim-web-devicons' if you disable icons.

I might remove the dependencies in the future if I have enough time to port the required functions, or if you complain loud enough.

Requirements

• Neovim 0.5

Usage

No default mappings are provided, here is an example:

" Magic buffer-picking mode
nnoremap <silent>      C-s> :BufferPick<CR>
" Sort automatically by...
nnoremap <silent> <Space>bd :BufferOrderByDirectory<CR>
nnoremap <silent> <Space>bl :BufferOrderByLanguage<CR>
" Move to previous/next
nnoremap <silent>    <A-,> :BufferPrevious<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A-.> :BufferNext<CR>
" Re-order to previous/next
nnoremap <silent>    <A-<> :BufferMovePrevious<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A->> :BufferMoveNext<CR>
" Goto buffer in position...
nnoremap <silent>    <A-1> :BufferGoto 1<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A-2> :BufferGoto 2<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A-3> :BufferGoto 3<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A-4> :BufferGoto 4<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A-5> :BufferGoto 5<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A-6> :BufferGoto 6<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A-7> :BufferGoto 7<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A-8> :BufferGoto 8<CR>
nnoremap <silent>    <A-9> :BufferLast<CR>

For the highligh groups, here are the default ones:

let bg_current = get(nvim_get_hl_by_name('Normal',     1), 'background', '#000000')
let bg_visible = get(nvim_get_hl_by_name('TabLineSel', 1), 'background', '#000000')
let bg_inactive = get(nvim_get_hl_by_name('TabLine',   1), 'background', '#000000')

" For the current active buffer
hi default link BufferCurrent      Normal
" For the current active buffer when modified
hi default link BufferCurrentMod   Normal
" For the current active buffer icon
hi default link BufferCurrentSign  Normal
" For the current active buffer target when buffer-picking
exe 'hi default BufferCurrentTarget   guifg=red gui=bold guibg=' . bg_current

" For buffers visible but not the current one
hi default link BufferVisible      TabLineSel
hi default link BufferVisibleMod   TabLineSel
hi default link BufferVisibleSign  TabLineSel
exe 'hi default BufferVisibleTarget   guifg=red gui=bold guibg=' . bg_visible

" For buffers invisible buffers
hi default link BufferInactive     TabLine
hi default link BufferInactiveMod  TabLine
hi default link BufferInactiveSign TabLine
exe 'hi default BufferInactiveTarget   guifg=red gui=bold guibg=' . bg_inactive


" For the shadow in buffer-picking mode
hi default BufferShadow guifg=#000000 guibg=#000000

You can also use the doom-one.vim colorscheme that defines those groups and is also very pleasant as you could see in the demos above.

Options

let bufferline = {}

" Show a shadow over the editor in buffer-pick mode
let bufferline.shadow = v:true

" Enable/disable icons
let bufferline.icons = v:true

" Enables/disable clickable tabs
"  - left-click: go to buffer
"  - middle-click: delete buffer
"
" NOTE disabled by default because this might cause E541 (too many items)
"      if you have many tabs open
let bufferline.clickable = v:false

" If set, the letters for each buffer in buffer-pick mode will be
" assigned based on their name. Otherwise or in case all letters are
" already assigned, the behavior is to assign letters in order of
" usability (see order below)
let bufferline.semantic_letters = v:true

" New buffer letters are assigned in this order. This order is
" optimal for the qwerty keyboard layout but might need adjustement
" for other layouts.
let bufferline.letters = 
  \ 'asdfjkl;ghnmxcbziowerutyqpASDFJKLGHNMXCBZIOWERUTYQP'