How to show all buffers in vim using powerline?

Question

I want to show all buffers' names on statusline(I use powerline). And I hope current buffer can be highlighted, while others are not. When I use :bn or :bp it highlights the changed buffer. How can I make it?

Answer 1

I don't know how to do such a thing with powerline, however I have come across vim-buftabline which does what you ask but with the tabline instead of the statusline.

Personally, I would forget doing this in the statusline or tabline, because it is very easy to run out of space on either line. I would also stop using :bn/:bp and just use :b instead to jump directly to the buffer in question.

Behold the power of :b:

• Uses <tab> completion
• Use <c-d> to list out completion
• Use partial file name. e.g. :b foo. Works great with <tab>.
• Globbing. e.g. :b foo*bar or :b foo/**/bar
• Might want to use 'hidden' via set hidden
• Split variant of :b is :sb.
• Also accepts a buffer number

A common mapping:

nnoremap <leader>b :ls<cr>:b<space>

For more help see:

:h :b
:h :ls
:h 'switchbuf'
:h 'hidden'
:h 'tabline'

Answer 2

In powerline, the list of open buffers can be displayed by adding the following line to your .vimrc configuration file:

set showtabline=2

This will add an additional status line at the top of your vim session and also highlight the active buffer.

Source: Powerline documentation