How to change the cursor between Normal and Insert modes in Vim?

user_140848 0
Viewed 93478

I would like to know how to change, if possible, the cursor in Vim (in color, shape, etc.) depending on what mode you are in.

I am constantly forgetting that I am not in Insert mode and start typing code, which results in all sorts of crazy things happening. It would be helpful if there was some sort of visual indication on the cursor.

vim
12 Answers

Not sure if anyone else is facing a delay after hitting the Esc key to go back to normal mode to show the block cursor but if so, this is the way I fix it too.

Actually I'm using iTerm2 and using Vim inside my terminal on macOS. And when entering to insert mode, the cursor still being a block and is kind of confusing when you are at insert mode or normal mode.

I wanted to show a thin line as cursor when in insert mode and back to block when in normal mode as MacVim does. And to do so it's pretty simple, just added this to my .vimrc file as described here:

let &t_SI = "\<Esc>]50;CursorShape=1\x7"
let &t_SR = "\<Esc>]50;CursorShape=2\x7"
let &t_EI = "\<Esc>]50;CursorShape=0\x7"

enter image description here

But as you can see there was a delay when hitting ESC to exit insert mode back to normal mode and show the block as cursor again. So to fix it I found this:

set ttimeout
set ttimeoutlen=1
set ttyfast

And now it works pretty fine as you can see:

fix delay going back to block as cursor

I hope it could help any one else!

user_41112950

You may try the Terminus Vim plugin:

In insert mode, the cursor shape changes to a thin vertical bar. In replace mode, it changes to an underline. On returning to normal mode, it reverts to the standard "block" shape.

user_20946680

According to this post on "Vim Tips WiKi":

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

"For Terminal on macOS"

"Mode Settings

let &t_SI.="\e[5 q" "SI = INSERT mode
let &t_SR.="\e[4 q" "SR = REPLACE mode
let &t_EI.="\e[1 q" "EI = NORMAL mode (ELSE)

"Cursor settings:

"  1 -> blinking block
"  2 -> solid block 
"  3 -> blinking underscore
"  4 -> solid underscore
"  5 -> blinking vertical bar
"  6 -> solid vertical bar

Scripts for other OS are also included in that post.

user_37761700

If you are using a modern version of nvim and you wanted to achieve this, you can avoid some of these fancy workarounds listed above.

The below settings will switch from block cursor in normal mode, to underline cursor in replace to line cursor in insert.

# ~/.tmux.conf
set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
set -ga terminal-overrides ",*256col*:Tc"
set -ga terminal-overrides '*:Ss=\E[%p1%d q:Se=\E[ q',w


" ~/.vimrc
" Sets cursor styles
" Block in normal, line in insert, underline in replace
set guicursor=n-v-c-sm:block,i-ci-ve:ver25-Cursor,r-cr-o:hor20

I managed to get this working with the following settings pulled from these two sources.

tui-cursor-shape

guicursor

user_24745310

I don't think this adds much to the answers that other people have already provided but I wanted to somehow summarise things in one place and also have links to the relevant references.

This is what the relevant snippet from my .vimrc looks like:

    " Cursor appearance
    "
    " See also: [1]'ANSI Control Functions Summary', [2]DECSCUSR, [3]xterm+tmux
    "   entry in terminfo.src.
    " [1] https://www.vt100.net/docs/vt510-rm/chapter4.html
    " [2] https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html
    " [3] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mirror/ncurses/master/misc/terminfo.src
    "
    " On:
    " - entered insert mode
    let &t_SI = "^[[5 q^[]12;Magenta\007" " blinking bar (Ss) in magenta (Cs)
    " - entered replace mode
    let &t_SR = "^[[0 q^[]12;Red\007" " blinking block (Ss) in red (Cs)
    " - leaving insert/replace mode
    let &t_EI = "^[[2 q^[]112\007" " terminal power-on style (Se) and colour (Cr)

Note: The '^[' characters are actually one ESC (escape sequence) control character.

user_122559990

This works properly on xfce4-terminal:

add following script to your .vimrc

if has("autocmd")
  au InsertEnter * silent execute "!sed -i.bak -e 's/TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_BLOCK/TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_IBEAM/' ~/.config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc"                                                                                          
  au InsertLeave * silent execute "!sed -i.bak -e 's/TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_IBEAM/TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_BLOCK/' ~/.config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc"                                                                                          
  au VimLeave * silent execute "!sed -i.bak -e 's/TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_IBEAM/TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_BLOCK/' ~/.config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc"  
endif

Brief: As You know xfce4-terminal keeps preferences in .config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc file. The script changes TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_BLOCK to TERMINAL_CURSOR_SHAPE_IBEAM when you're in insert mode, and back to block when you leave insert mode or vim. Feel free to change IBEAM to anything you want (BLOCK, IBEAM and UNDERLINE available).

user_101767170
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