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How can I have different cursor shapes when running vim inside tmux under cygwin?

WITHOUT tmux these lines would be enough to achieve what I want:

let &t_SI = "\e[5 q"
let &t_EI = "\e[2 q"

But somehow my tmux breaks it - cursor has block shape no matter what vim mode I'm in.

My specs:

  • Windows 7 x64
  • Cygwin x86
  • TMUX 1.9a
  • Vim 7.4.726 (compiled with +cursorshape)
  • terminal emulator: mintty 1.1.3
  • used in Cygwin Terminal or Cmder (either way, cursor shapes work only without TMUX)
  • echo $TERM gives me screen-256color (in TMUX and outside of it, because i have export TERM=screen-256color in my .bashrc
  • .tmux.conf contains:
    set -g default-terminal "screen-256color" setw -g xterm-keys on

What i tried already without success:

  • export TERM=xterm
  • export TERM=vt100
  • "rightclick on bar > Options > Looks > Cursor" (it changes the cursor permanently, vim modes still don't change it)
Improve this question
12
  • Vim compiled with '+cursorshape' feature?
    – Alex Kroll
    May 24, 2015 at 1:29
  • Check terminal settings. And this question looks similar superuser.com/questions/634326/…
    – Alex Kroll
    May 25, 2015 at 14:24
  • Which terminal emulator are you using? Have you tried something like let &t_SI = "\<Esc>Ptmux;\<Esc>\<Esc>]50;CursorShape=1;BlinkingCursorEnabled=1\x7\<Esc>\\" and let &t_EI = "\<Esc>Ptmux;\<Esc>\<Esc>]50;CursorShape=0;BlinkingCursorEnabled=0\x7\<Esc>\\"?
    – jjaderberg
    May 25, 2015 at 20:11
  • @jjaderberg iTerm's escape sequence? Works only in iTerm with some cautions: iTerm Doc >iTerm2 supports several non-standard escape codes. These may not work properly in tmux or screen, and may have unknown effects on other terminal emulators. Proceed with caution.
    – Alex Kroll
    May 26, 2015 at 5:47
  • 1
    I've check my soft one more time and all versions are same with yours but $TERM in mintty options is xterm-256color inside tmux screen-256color. tmux has version 1.9 (and your is 1.9a). I've launch vim inside tmux vim -u NULL (-u NULL means no config). Cursor shape is block in any mode, but when I assign t_SI and t_EI shape switch from block (normal mode) to I (insert mode) as expected. Can you try to launch vim with empty .vimrc, without any colorschemes and plugins?
    – Alex Kroll
    May 26, 2015 at 21:49

2 Answers 2

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12

It seems the problem is that tmux doesn't send your cursor-changing escape codes to the terminal emulator. You need to wrap your desired escape codes in a special sequence that tells tmux that it should pass it on to the outer terminal.

The sequence you need to wrap your escape sequence in is \<Esc>Ptmux;\<Esc> ... \<Esc>\\(Source). The ... is your escape sequence.

So, try doing something like this in your .vimrc:

if exists('$TMUX')
    let &t_SI = "\<Esc>Ptmux;\<Esc>\e[5 q\<Esc>\\"
    let &t_EI = "\<Esc>Ptmux;\<Esc>\e[2 q\<Esc>\\"
else
    let &t_SI = "\e[5 q"
    let &t_EI = "\e[2 q"
endif

I don't use your terminal emulator or cygwin, so I couldn't test this code. But the method worked for me (I just wrapped other escape codes that suit my terminal).

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1
  • This is even better - works without changing my .bashrc. Thank you.
    – Kossak
    May 29, 2015 at 13:21
5

The correct value of $TERM environments variable is very important. Make sure that it is different from screen-256color. Set it to xterm-256color for example.

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1
  • A cleaner solution than the accepted one.
    – mxgrn
    Apr 8 at 8:43

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