How to get a block cursor in Vim in the Cygwin terminal

cursorcygwin;terminal-emulatorvim

I am used to having a block cursor in normal mode in Vim. This makes sense with the Vim paradigm; when you press x, it is clear which character will be deleted.

I've installed Cygwin on a Windows computer, but when I use Vim in its terminal, I get the I cursor, even in normal mode. How can I make the cursor be a block instead?

Best Answer

This question on the Cygwin mailing list answers the question by setting some arcane variables to the appropriate escape sequences. Add this to your .vimrc:

let &t_ti.="\e[1 q"
let &t_SI.="\e[5 q"
let &t_EI.="\e[1 q"
let &t_te.="\e[0 q"

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Windows – cygwin + mintty + vim backspace problem

Cygwin's vim is configured to behave like traditional vi by default. Just create an empty ~/.vimrc, which causes vim extensions to be enabled and hence the Backspace and arrow keys to behave as expected.

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You can try this one in your .vimrc:

let &t_SI="\033[4 q" " start insert mode
let &t_EI="\033[1 q" " end insert mode

This will set under line for inset mode and block for normal. More details: http://vt100.net/docs/vt510-rm/DECSCUSR

Also it's possible to play with this command in terminal, where is X can be 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4.

printf '\033[X q'

Best Answer

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