Introduction

Usually I use neovim and tmux in kitty terminal. Currently I use archlinux + hyprland + waybar. There are many status bars on my monitor. neovim statusline and tabline, tmux bar waybar. They overlap in many places and take up my screen space. So I decided to remove some status bars. They are distracting me. I think I can focus on writing code. And I’m tired of those status bars with graphical symbols. So I tried to do some integration.

Integration

Normally I don’t use neovim tabline (also lots of pepole call bufferline) that mean i don’t set set tabline=2 in my neovim config. my workflow is winbar + my personal plugin flybuf to switch buffer. But sometimes I need to see the full name of a file. So I’m going to use tmux’s bar as my bufferline. it have many spaces.

Tmux Settings

Okay first need put tmux bar to top by set set -g status-position top. If you doesn’t see the bar make sure you set set -g status on. and I need the active pane information also in left. just set status-justify to left.

set -g status-interval 1
set -g status on
set -g status-justify left
set -g status-position top

notice status-interval set to 1 make tmux bar update quickly.

now need config a tmux bar:

prefix="#{?client_prefix,🐠,}"
set -g status-left "#[fg=green]#[fg=black,bg=green] #{?@path,#{@path},#{s|$HOME/||:pane_current_path}}#[bg=$background,fg=green]"
set -g status-right "$prefix #[fg=yellow]#[bg=yellow,fg=black,bold]%Y %b %d %a#[bg=$background,fg=yellow]"
set -g window-status-format "#[fg=$inactive]#[bg=$inactive,fg=colour7]#I:#W#[fg=$inactive,bg=$background]"
set -g window-status-current-format "#[fg=blue]#[bg=blue,fg=black,bold]#I:#W#[fg=blue,bg=$background]"
set -g window-status-separator ''

Need nerd font install OR Config symbol map in kitty

Neovim Lua Code

now let neovim control tmux bar to show file name.

local function set_tmux_bar()
  vim.defer_fn(function()
    local fname = api.nvim_buf_get_name(0)
    if #fname == 0 then
      return
    end
    local parts = vim.split(fname, '/', { trimempty = true })
    -- remove /home/xx/workspace and folder/filename
    -- because i set winbar to show file name and up folder in winbar
    parts = { unpack(parts, (parts[3] == 'workspace' and 4 or 3), #parts - 1) }
    fname = table.concat(parts, '/')
    vim.system({ 'tmux', 'set', '@path', fname }, { text = true }, function(obj)
      if obj.stderr then
        print(obj.stderr)
      end
    end)
  end, 0)
end

why wrap in defer_fn. actually defer_fn just a luv (libuv lua wrap) timer wrapper. when timeout is 0 it will run in next event loop. because doesn’t have a high priority for me. the callbacks in current event loop make more sense for me. So I run it in next event loop. there just show file folder in tmux bar the tail and home is removed. because i show filename in neovim winbar.

the core of these codes just tmux set @path. this is tmux script formats. you can take more information about this format on tmux wiki page. in tmux I config the left like

set -g status-left "#[fg=green]#[fg=black,bg=green] #{?@path,#{@path},#{s|$HOME/||:pane_current_path}}#[bg=$background,fg=green]"

let me explain this code. when neovim not running @path is empty then tmux bar will show current pane path {:pane_current_path}. this will show a full path which have host name. Usually i don’t want see it. replace #{s|$HOME/||:pane_current_path} when path have $HOME will sub to empty.

local au = vim.api.nvim_create_autocmd

au('VimLeave', {
  group = my_group,
  callback = function()
    vim.system({ 'tmux', 'set', '@path', '0' }, { text = true }, function() end)
  end,
})

au('BufEnter', {
  group = my_group,
  callback = function()
    if vim.fn.getenv('TMUX') == 1 then
      return
    end
    set_tmux_bar()

    if #api.nvim_get_autocmds({ group = my_group, event = { 'FocusGained' } }) == 0 then
      au('FocusGained', {
        group = my_group,
        callback = function()
          set_tmux_bar()
        end,
      })
    end
  end,
})

nkNeed some events to trigger update. First is BufEnter. when a buffer open update the tmxu bar. when exit neovim also need update tmux bar to current path so just set @path to 0. Next is FocusGained sometimes I will split a tmux window to run neovim do some test or some other works. Also need update tmux bar.

Now everything works perfect.