This tip is deprecated for the following reasons:
In Vim 7 you can put ":set cursorline" in your vimrc.
Duplicate tip
This tip is very similar to the following:
These tips need to be merged – see the merge guidelines.
Tip: #263 - Color active line
Created: June 18, 2002 7:05 Complexity: basic Author: Armin Rehm (rehm.armin--AT--schwenk.de) Version: 6.0 Karma: 142/50 Imported from: Tip#263
This tip shows how to color the active line, the line in which the cursor is, for better reading.
You should try possibility 2 before 1, IMHO it is mostly usable.
possibility 1:
:au! CursorHold * let @/ = '\%' . line('.') . 'l.*'
:set ut=500
Explanation:
After 500 ms of waiting for you to hit a key, vim sets the search register to a pattern that matches the current line.
Problem:
Register / holds the search pattern, so you cannot have color the active line and search.
Therefore another solution:
Possibility 2:
:highlight CurrentLine guibg=darkgrey guifg=white (or whatever colors you want)
:au! Cursorhold * exe 'match CurrentLine /\%' . line('.') . 'l.*/'
:set ut=100
Explanation:
This solution uses 'match' to highlight a string, it does not interface with the current search pattern.
Addition:
Turning the highlighning off:
:au! Cursorhold :match none
The order of these commands are important. If :match none is executed first, the autocommand would almost immediately execute another match command.
References
Comments
It should be noted that the CursorHold event is not updated within insert mode. :(
digitect (at) mindspring � com , June 18, 2002 7:38
now this is cool. I really appreciated this tip. Can anyone tell me how to make this work in insert mode as well? Then I'll be giddy with the joy that only vim can give me.
richardsugg--AT--yahoo.com , June 19, 2002 5:10
I wrote a script to do this that will work in insert mode. By the way, it has problems if there is a delimiter on the line that you are trying to highlight.
- Press F2 to highlight a line.
- Press F3 to unhighlight the line
The current version is below.
" Vim plugin file
" Description:
" Maintainer: Torrin <jonestor1976--AT--yahoo.com>
" Last Change: 2002 JUN 21
" Version: 2
" If we have already loaded this file, don't load it again.
if exists("loaded_highlightline")
finish
endif
let loaded_highlightline=1
" Save compatable options
let s:save_cpo = &cpo
set cpo&vim
let linehighlighted=0
map <F2> :call <SID>HighlightLine()<CR>
map <F3> :call <SID>UnHighlightLine()<CR>
imap <F2> <C-O>:call <SID>HighlightLine()<CR>
imap <F3> <C-O>:call <SID>UnHighlightLine()<CR>
function! s:HighlightLine()
" execute "syntax keyword OneLine \"" . getline(".") . "\""
if g:linehighlighted == 1
call <SID>UnHighlightLine()
endif
execute "syntax match OneLine +" . getline(".") . "+ oneline"
execute "highlight default link OneLine Visual"
let g:linehighlighted = 1
endfunction
function! s:UnHighlightLine()
if g:linehighlighted == 1
execute "syntax clear OneLine"
let g:linehighlighted = 0
endif
endfunction
let &cpo = s:save_cpo
unlet s:save_cpo
jonestor1976--AT--yahoo.com , June 21, 2002 10:05
I've just added the script above to the archive as script#319
Have fun.
jonestor1976--AT--yahoo.com , June 21, 2002 10:18
The tip seems to be working better than the script...
Anonymous , July 4, 2002 1:22
The tip does'nt work for me. I have VIM 6.1, but I'm not using gvim - is this the problem?
TIA,
Flavio.
flavio [at] polettix.it , November 4, 2002 3:55
Any idea how one could get the entire ROW to be hilighted?
dsummersl--AT--yahoo.com , April 30, 2003 9:43
modified possibility 2; should now work in xterm:
:highlight CurrentLine guibg=LightCyan guifg=black ctermbg=LightCyan ctermfg=black
:au! Cursorhold * :exe 'match CurrentLine /\%' . line(".") . 'l.*'
set ut=100
doc-brown--AT--gmx.net , April 27, 2005 13:47
VimTip769 is the best choice
stevenpan--AT--gmail.com , April 26, 2006 2:17