set cursor to block

Question

I am trying to set the cursor as a block/box that surrounds the current character as opposed to a line cursor:

This is my default that I got pressing :set guicursor=<Tab>

:set guicursor=n-v-c:block-Cursor/lCursor,ve:ver35-Cursor,o:hor50-Cursor,i-ci:ver25-Cursor/lCursor,r-cr:hor20-Cursor/lCurso
r,sm:block-Cursor-blinkwait175-blinkoff150-blinkon175

I tried changing lCursor to bCursor or cursor, like so:

:set guicursor=n-v-c:block...

And also

:set guicursor=n-c-v:block-nCursor

but that's not the away apparently.

I need this because the way it indicates characters at the moment doesn't reflect the white spaces in a way i understand them.

---

PD: I just realized that way you set it for gVim but I am not using gVim, and can't find much for vim.

Help please : - ) !!

Answer 1

• For standard Vi/Vim I changed Alacritty's (terminal emulator) cursor mode from Beam to Block, and Vim takes that.

• For gVim type :help guicursor

Or type :set guicursor= and hit Tab to autocomplete with the default value. In my case it looks like this:

:set guicursor=n-v-c:block-nCursor/lCursor,ve:ver35-Curs
or,o:hor50-Cursor,i-ci:ver25-Cursor/lCursor,r-cr:hor20-
Cursor/lCursor,sm:block-Cursor-blinkwait175-blinkoff150
-blinkon175

As you may infer the syntax is a comma separated list of <modes>:<options>.

And both modes and options can be a list of values, in this case separated by dashes -.

The first one is for normal,visual or command mode, uses a block Cursor.

So this n-v-c:block-nCursor is valid for normal, visual and command line mode, and uses the block cursor with an option nCursor which is a highlight group (no idea what this is).

Then there is a /lCursor which is an optional highlight group.

If instead of block we use ver{N} or hor{N} we convert the cursor to a line, horizontal or vertical, of a specific width.

That's more or less the idea.