Mode Line
All the Icons is perfect for customising your mode line. Iconography and Icon Fonts and extremely good at conveying information without using too much space.
I made a couple of modifications to my Mode Line (as you can see in the above screenshot) which is based on Powerline. I have been maintaining my own version of Powerline which can be found here, so the following snippets of code are designed to work with that but that should still serve well as inspiration for how to customise your own mode line.
N.B. - You don't need Powerline to get icons in your Mode Line.
Table of Contents
- Modified or Read Only
- Window Numbers
- Mode Icon
- Region Marking
- Version Control Icon
- Flycheck Checker Information
- Number of Packages to Update
- Weather Summary
- Time with an Icon Clock
This snippet displays a chain icon when the current file is saved, a broken chain when it is modified and a pad lock when the file is read only.
(defun custom-modeline-modified
((let* ((config-alist
'(("*" all-the-icons-faicon-family all-the-icons-faicon "chain-broken" :height 1.2 :v-adjust -0.0)
("-" all-the-icons-faicon-family all-the-icons-faicon "link" :height 1.2 :v-adjust -0.0)
("%" all-the-icons-octicon-family all-the-icons-octicon "lock" :height 1.2 :v-adjust 0.1)))
(result (cdr (assoc (format-mode-line "%*") config-alist))))
(propertize (apply (cadr result) (cddr result))
'face `(:family ,(funcall (car result))))))This snippet displays a number icon for the number of the current window. This is designed to work with the Window Numbering package.
(defun custom-modeline-window-number ()
(propertize (format " %c" (+ 9311 (window-numbering-get-number)))
'face `(:height ,(/ (* 0.90 powerline/default-height) 100.0))
'display '(raise 0.0)))This snippet displays the Developer Icon for the mode of that buffers file.
(defun custom-modeline-mode-icon ()
(format " %s"
(propertize icon
'help-echo (format "Major-mode: `%s`" major-mode)
'face `(:height 1.2 :family ,(all-the-icons-icon-family-for-buffer)))))This snippet displays useful information on the current marked region, i.e. number of lines and characters marked.
(defun custom-modeline-region-info ()
(when mark-active
(let ((words (count-lines (region-beginning) (region-end)))
(chars (count-words (region-end) (region-beginning))))
(concat
(propertize (format " %s" (all-the-icons-octicon "pencil") words chars)
'face `(:family ,(all-the-icons-octicon-family))
'display '(raise -0.0))
(propertize (format " (%s, %s)" words chars)
'face `(:height 0.9))))))This snippet displays information about the current buffers version control system. Currently, it only supports SVN & Git for including icons.
(defun -custom-modeline-github-vc ()
(let ((branch (mapconcat 'concat (cdr (split-string vc-mode "[:-]")) "-")))
(concat
(propertize (format " %s" (all-the-icons-alltheicon "git")) 'face `(:height 1.2) 'display '(raise -0.1))
" · "
(propertize (format "%s" (all-the-icons-octicon "git-branch"))
'face `(:height 1.3 :family ,(all-the-icons-octicon-family))
'display '(raise -0.1))
(propertize (format " %s" branch) 'face `(:height 0.9)))))
(defun -custom-modeline-svn-vc ()
(let ((revision (cadr (split-string vc-mode "-"))))
(concat
(propertize (format " %s" (all-the-icons-faicon "cloud")) 'face `(:height 1.2) 'display '(raise -0.1))
(propertize (format " · %s" revision) 'face `(:height 0.9)))))
(defun custom-modeline-icon-vc ()
(when vc-mode
(cond
((string-match "Git[:-]" vc-mode) (-custom-modeline-github-vc))
((string-match "SVN-" vc-mode) (-custom-modeline-svn-vc))
(t (format "%s" vc-mode)))))This snippet displays information about the results of running
Flycheck on the current
buffer. It doesn't actually use all-the-icons but it does look
nicer, and could use it.
(defun custom-modeline-flycheck-status ()
(let* ((text (pcase flycheck-last-status-change
(`finished (if flycheck-current-errors
(let ((count (let-alist (flycheck-count-errors flycheck-current-errors)
(+ (or .warning 0) (or .error 0)))))
(format "✖ %s Issue%s" count (unless (eq 1 count) "s")))
"✔ No Issues"))
(`running "⟲ Running")
(`no-checker "⚠ No Checker")
(`not-checked "✖ Disabled")
(`errored "⚠ Error")
(`interrupted "⛔ Interrupted")
(`suspicious ""))))
(propertize text
'help-echo "Show Flycheck Errors"
'mouse-face '(:box 1)
'local-map (make-mode-line-mouse-map
'mouse-1 (lambda () (interactive) (flycheck-list-errors)))))))This snippet displays the number of packages that you last needed to update. This currently works every time you refresh your package archive list, so the number can get stale pretty quickly.
(defvar powerline/upgrades nil)
(defun powerline/count-upgrades ()
(let ((buf (current-buffer)))
(package-list-packages-no-fetch)
(with-current-buffer "*Packages*"
(setq powerline/upgrades (length (package-menu--find-upgrades))))
(switch-to-buffer buf)))
(advice-add 'package-menu-execute :after 'powerline/count-upgrades)
(defun custom-modeline-package-updates ()
(let ((num (or powerline/upgrades (powerline/count-upgrades))))
(when (> num 0)
(propertize
(concat
(propertize (format "%s" (all-the-icons-octicon "package"))
'face `(:family ,(all-the-icons-octicon-family) :height 1.2)
'display '(raise -0.1))
(propertize (format " %d updates " num)
'face `(:height 0.9)))
'help-echo "Open Packages Menu"
'mouse-face '(:box 1)
'local-map (make-mode-line-mouse-map
'mouse-1 (lambda () (interactive) (package-list-packages)))))))This snippet displays the current time, the sunrise, sunset, current weather and the current temperature. It uses (and depends on) the Yahoo Weather package.
(defun custom-modeline-suntime ()
(if (and (boundp 'yahoo-weather-info) yahoo-weather-mode)
(concat
(format "%s "(yahoo-weather-info-format yahoo-weather-info "%(sunrise-time)"))
(format "%s " (all-the-icons-wicon "sunrise" :height 0.5 :v-adjust -0.1))
(format "%s "(yahoo-weather-info-format yahoo-weather-info "%(sunset-time)"))
(format "%s "(all-the-icons-wicon "sunset" :height 0.5 :v-adjust -0.1)))
""))
(defun custom-modeline-weather ()
(if (and (boundp 'yahoo-weather-info) yahoo-weather-mode)
(let* ((weather (yahoo-weather-info-format yahoo-weather-info format))
(icon (all-the-icons-icon-for-weather (downcase weather)))
(family (if (> (length icon) 2)
(face-attribute 'default :family)
(all-the-icons-wicon-family))))
(propertize (format " %s " icon)
'help-echo weather
'face `(:height 1.0 :family ,family)
'display '(raise 0.1)))
""))This snippet displays the current time with a little clock icon which represents the current Hour (i.e. a clock face where the minute hand doesn't move)
(defun custom-modeline-time ()
(let* ((hour (string-to-number (format-time-string "%I")))
(icon (all-the-icons-wicon (format "time-%s" hour) :height 1.3 :v-adjust 0.0)))
(concat
(propertize (format-time-string " %H:%M ") 'face `(:height 0.9))
(propertize (format "%s " icon) 'face `(:height 1.0 :family ,(all-the-icons-wicon-family)) 'display '(raise -0.0)))))
With all of the above snippets defined, you should be able to create a
mode line using them by setting mode-line-format to the following.
(setq mode-line-format '("%e" (:eval
(concat
(custom-modeline-modified)
(custom-modeline-window-number)
(custom-modeline-mode-icon)
(custom-modeline-icon-vc)
(custom-modeline-region-info)
(custom-modeline-flycheck-status)
(custom-modeline-suntime)
(custom-modeline-weather)
(custom-modeline-time)))))This gives you a basic idea of being able to customise parts of your mode line, I know the above won't look quite right but it's a start! I'd be happy to help if you have any questions of how I got my mode line to look the way that it does. So feel free to raise an issue