Question

I have successfully set my linestatus configuration. However, the only thing missing is some background color, either for the whole line as well as in particular elements. How can I set them?

Answer 1

You need to define the colours as new highlighting groups User1, User2, etc:

hi User1 ctermbg=blue    ctermfg=white   guibg=blue    guifg=white
hi User2 ctermbg=black   ctermfg=red     guibg=black   guifg=red

Then you can specify them in the statusline string like so:

set statusline=
set statusline+=%1*   " Switch to colour User1
set statusline+=%F
set statusline+=%*    " Switch to default colour
set statusline+=%P
set statusline+=%2*   " Switch to colour User2
set statusline+=%c

EDIT

This probably belongs in a new question, but here is the method I use to find the existing colouring for a highlight group. In this example I set the Folded syntax to be the same as the current Normal syntax. I do this by directing the output of hi Normal to a variable, and then extracting the various information from it.

redir => hinorm
sil exe 'hi Normal'
redir END
if hinorm =~ 'cleared'
    sil exe 'hi clear Folded'
else
    let guibg = matchstr(strtrans(hinorm),'guibg=[#a-zA-Z0-9]*')
    let guifg = matchstr(strtrans(hinorm),'guifg=[#a-zA-Z0-9]*')
    sil exe 'hi Folded ' . guibg
    sil exe 'hi Folded ' . guifg
endif

If there is a cleaner method, let me know!