Powerline

Powerline is a great status-line plugin for the shell and used in matrix.dot.files.

Extensible and feature rich, written in Python.
It also supports prompts and statuslines in several Linux utilities and tools.
It has configurations and decorator colors developed using JSON.
Fast and lightweight, with daemon support, which provides even more better performance

Enabled by Default in .matrix: home/.matrix/powerline/.bash_extension check_powerline is called from the extension during shell initiation to also enable it

Install Powerline

By default you will find this error [ERROR] Powerline is not found, but enabled. until it is disabled or installed as below.

Run check_powerline_requirements to validate all the prerequisites tools required for powerline are installed and reachable from the shell.

Prerequisites

Fonts with special characters
socat installed
pip | pipx installed with python 3.8 or 3.9.

Additional Support Functions:

Matrix function: check_pip_powerline
Matrix function: check_pipx_powerline

Fonts

Powerline requires some special font symbols so we recommend using particular fonts in terminal configuration.

There are many patched fonts that can be used:

https://github.com/powerline/fonts
https://github.com/abertsch/Menlo-for-Powerline

Remember: You need the powerline font on the client rendering, not the server.
(Example: If you are using OSX to connect to a linux machine you need menlo-powerline in your iterm2 config on the macos, not the linux machine.)

macOS:

Configure iterm2 for macOS to use menlo for powerline or monaco.

Debian / BSD:

Install apt|yum|etc.. install fonts-powerline

Automated Install:

git clone https://github.com/powerline/fonts.git --depth=1 && cd fonts && ./install.sh && cd .. && rm -rf fonts

IDE / VSCode Terminal:

Many IDEs may spawn your terminal and you may want to also edit the font here:

PIPX way: (Preferred 2020+)

If you want to install powerline via pipx here are the commands:

pipx install powerline-status
pipx inject powerline-status psutil
pipx inject powerline-status powerline-gitstatus
pipx inject powerline-status powerline-inject
# (optional kubectl tooltips) pip inject powerline-status powerkube-fork

PIP way (Legacy method)

If you are installing directly onto your python env.

pip install powerline-status
pip install psutil
pip install powerline-gitstatus
pip install powerline-inject
# (optional kubectl tooltips) pip install powerkube-fork

TMUX integration

~/.tmux.conf by .matrix needs to be edited to point at where powerline-status really is!

# Legacy Python 2.7 with powerline-status
# source "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/powerline/bindings/tmux/powerline.conf"
# System Python 3.8 with powerline-status
# source "/usr/local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/powerline/bindings/tmux/powerline.conf"
# Pyenv 3.8 with PIPX Install of powerline-status
source "~/.local/pipx/venvs/powerline-status/lib/python3.8/site-packages/powerline/bindings/tmux/powerline.conf"

Theme & ColorScheme

numerous addons are enabled like powerline git-status in the theme dot.matrix so it works out of the box.

$HOME/.config/powerline/colorschemes/default.json
$HOME/.config/powerline/colorschemes/matrix.json
$HOME/.config/powerline/themes/shell/__main__.json
$HOME/.config/powerline/themes/shell/matrix.json

Is Powerline-status Daemon Running and Loaded?

Is powerline loaded in bash?

LC_ALL=C type _powerline_return

If it returns this .. its loaded.

_powerline_return is a function
_powerline_return ()
{
    return $1
}

If its not loaded ..

-bash: type: _powerline_return: not found

Customizations beyond Matrix.dot.files

Configuration

Powerline has a number of configurations:

DOCS: https://powerline.readthedocs.io/en/master/configuration.html

VSCode Terminal

Powerline for the VSCODE Terminal

https://dev.to/mattstratton/making-powerline-work-in-visual-studio-code-terminal-1m7

For Quick Customization

If you want to modify some file you can create ~/.config/powerline directory and put modifications there: all configuration files are merged with each other.

The dot.matrix comes with .config/powerline/config.json

{
  "ext": {
    "shell": {
       "theme": "matrix"
     }
  }
}

This overrides the default theme /usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/powerline/config_files/config.json:

{
    "ext": {
        "shell": {
            "colorscheme": "default",
            "theme": "default",
            "local_themes": {
                    "continuation": "continuation",
                    "select": "select"
            },
        },
    },
}

Reference: https://powerline.readthedocs.io/en/latest/configuration.html#quick-guide

ColorScheme

solarized is available in the powerline-status repo for shell if you want to enable it instead of default.

Extensions

Each extension (vim, tmux, etc.) has its own theme, and they are located in config directory/themes/extension/default.json.

Bash

Path representative of pip installed through 3.7 non-system

/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh

TMUX

/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/tmux/powerline.conf

There are custom TMUX samples like this:

https://github.com/sbernheim4/dotfiles/blob/master/.tmux.conf
https://github.com/powerline/powerline/blob/43c1707206781859aee05090b6e32d6e54e73649/powerline/bindings/tmux/powerline-base.conf

Locating Powerline

$> pip show powerline-status
Name: powerline-status
Version: 2.7
Summary: The ultimate statusline/prompt utility.
Home-page: https://github.com/powerline/powerline
Author: Kim Silkebaekken
Author-email: kim.silkebaekken+vim@gmail.com
License: MIT
Location: /usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages
Requires:
Required-by:

Tutorials

Customizing Powerline with Weather Plugin:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/29874715/1569557

Full tutorial hacking into Powerline

https://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/getting-spiffy-with-powerline--cms-20740

Powerline Segments

A common segment/function you might want to add to a theme is env.environment

{
    "function": "powerline.segments.common.env.environment",
    "priority": 30
},

			{
                "function": "powerline.segments.common.env.variable",
                "priority": 50,
                "before": "HH ",
                "args": {
                    "variable": "HOME"
                }
            },

@requires_segment_info
def environment(pl, segment_info, variable=None):
	'''Return the value of any defined environment variable

	:param string variable:
		The environment variable to return if found
	'''
	return segment_info['environ'].get(variable, None)

Reference: https://powerline.readthedocs.io/en/master/configuration/segments/common.html#powerline.segments.common.env.environment

Down the rabbit hole of TMUX customs

Its gotten more confusing on where to inject tmux interpolation into powerline configs

Also faced the similar issue (powerline/powerline#1566). Not sure how but adding power-config command directly in tmux.conf worked for me. run-shell 'powerline-config tmux setup'

These files are to be sourced by powerline-config tmux setup which is called by powerline.conf.

if-shell 'env "$POWERLINE_CONFIG_COMMAND" tmux setup' '' 'run-shell "powerline-config tmux setup"'
# vim: ft=tmux

$> powerline tmux right
#[fg=colour233,bg=default,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore] #[fg=colour247,bg=colour233,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore] ↑  21h 41m 42s#[fg=colour241,bg=colour233,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore] #[fg=colour2,bg=colour233,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore] 1.5 #[fg=colour2,bg=colour233,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore]1.7 #[fg=colour2,bg=colour233,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore]1.6#[fg=colour236,bg=colour233,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore] #[fg=colour247,bg=colour236,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore] 2019-11-07#[fg=colour241,bg=colour236,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore] #[fg=colour252,bg=colour236,bold,noitalics,nounderscore] 08:13#[fg=colour252,bg=colour236,nobold,noitalics,nounderscore] #[fg=colour16,bg=colour252,bold,noitalics,nounderscore]  percentage.lan  scottmacgregor  ~ 

$> tmux show -g | grep status
@plugin "tmux-plugins/tmux-online-status"
status on
status-bg colour233
status-fg colour231
status-format[0] "#[align=left range=left #{status-left-style}]#{T;=/#{status-left-length}:status-left}#[norange default]#[list=on align=#{status-justify}]#[list=left-marker]<#[list=right-marker]>#[list=on]#{W:#[range=window|#{window_index} #{window-status-style}#{?#{&&:#{window_last_flag},#{!=:#{window-status-last-style},default}}, #{window-status-last-style},}#{?#{&&:#{window_bell_flag},#{!=:#{window-status-bell-style},default}}, #{window-status-bell-style},#{?#{&&:#{||:#{window_activity_flag},#{window_silence_flag}},#{!=:#{window-status-activity-style},default}}, #{window-status-activity-style},}}]#{T:window-status-format}#[norange default]#{?window_end_flag,,#{window-status-separator}},#[range=window|#{window_index} list=focus #{?#{!=:#{window-status-current-style},defastatus-left-length 20
status-left-style default
status-position bottom
status-right "#(env \"$POWERLINE_COMMAND\" $POWERLINE_COMMAND_ARGS tmux right -R pane_id=\"`tmux display -p \"#\"\"D\"`\" --width=`tmux display -p \"#\"\"{client_width}\"` -R width_adjust=`tmux show-options -g status-left-length | cut -d\" \" -f 2`)"
status-right-length 150
status-right-style default
status-style fg=colour231,bg=colour233

Clipboards and TMUX

$>  tmux show-options -g -s set-clipboard
set-clipboard external

Reference

https://powerline.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage/shell-prompts.html#bash-prompt
https://github.com/d2iq-shadowbq/powerline-inject
https://github.com/jaspernbrouwer/powerline-gitstatus

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README.powerline.md

README.powerline.md

Powerline

Install Powerline

Fonts

PIPX way: (Preferred 2020+)

PIP way (Legacy method)

TMUX integration

Theme & ColorScheme

Is Powerline-status Daemon Running and Loaded?

Customizations beyond Matrix.dot.files

Configuration

VSCode Terminal

For Quick Customization

ColorScheme

Extensions

Bash

TMUX

Locating Powerline

Tutorials

Powerline Segments

Down the rabbit hole of TMUX customs

Clipboards and TMUX

Reference

Files

README.powerline.md

Latest commit

History

README.powerline.md

File metadata and controls

Powerline

Install Powerline

Fonts

PIPX way: (Preferred 2020+)

PIP way (Legacy method)

TMUX integration

Theme & ColorScheme

Is Powerline-status Daemon Running and Loaded?

Customizations beyond Matrix.dot.files

Configuration

VSCode Terminal

For Quick Customization

ColorScheme

Extensions

Bash

TMUX

Locating Powerline

Tutorials

Powerline Segments

Down the rabbit hole of TMUX customs

Clipboards and TMUX

Reference