How can I install and use powerline plugin?

Powerline is a plug-in to display informational and beautiful statusline for vim, tmux and shell prompt for bash, zsh.

Vim statusline: How can I install and setup Powerline for different applications and shells in Ubuntu?

Plugin Installation:

Install python-pip and git: Open terminal by hitting Ctrl+Alt+T and run:

sudo apt-get install python-pip git

• Per user:
  In terminal run:

  pip install --user git+git://github.com/Lokaltog/powerline
  

  Add ~/.local/bin to $PATH by modifying ~/.profile with your favourite editor:

  gksudo gedit ~/.profile
  

  and adding following lines at the end of it:

  if [ -d "$HOME/.local/bin" ]; then
      PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
  fi
  

• System wide:
  In terminal run:

  su -c 'pip install git+git://github.com/Lokaltog/powerline'
  

Font Installation:

Powerline provides two ways of installing the required fonts. If you're using one of following terminal: Gnome Terminal, Konsole, lxterminal, st, Xfce Terminal, Terminator, Guake, Yakuake then you should use "Fontconfig" method.

• Fontconfig: (recommended)

  • Per User:
    Run the following commands in terminal:

    wget https://github.com/Lokaltog/powerline/raw/develop/font/PowerlineSymbols.otf https://github.com/Lokaltog/powerline/raw/develop/font/10-powerline-symbols.conf
    mkdir -p ~/.fonts/ && mv PowerlineSymbols.otf ~/.fonts/
    fc-cache -vf ~/.fonts
    mkdir -p ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/ && mv 10-powerline-symbols.conf ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/
    

  • System wide:
    Run the following commands in terminal:

    wget https://github.com/Lokaltog/powerline/raw/develop/font/PowerlineSymbols.otf https://github.com/Lokaltog/powerline/raw/develop/font/10-powerline-symbols.conf
    sudo mv PowerlineSymbols.otf /usr/share/fonts/
    sudo fc-cache -vf
    sudo mv 10-powerline-symbols.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/
    

• Patched font:
  Use this method only if "Fontconfig" method doesn't work for you or you're using a terminal other than mentioned above.

  1. Download the font of your choice from powerline-fonts.
  2. Move your patched font to ~/.fonts/ for per user installation or /usr/share/fonts for system wide installation.
  3. Run fc-cache -vf ~/.fonts to update your font cache, sudo fc-cache -vf to do it system wide.

To use patched font in Gvim see this answer and to change the font of your respective terminal check this question: How to change the font of various terminal emulators?. You may have to reboot your system after font installation for changes to take effect.

Usage: (for per user installation)

• Vim statusline:
  Add following to your ~/.vimrc or /etc/vim/vimrc:

  set rtp+=$HOME/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/vim/
  
  " Always show statusline
  set laststatus=2
  
  " Use 256 colours (Use this setting only if your terminal supports 256 colours)
  set t_Co=256
  

• Bash prompt:
  Add the following line to your ~/.bashrc or /etc/bash.bashrc:

  if [ -f ~/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh ]; then
      source ~/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh
  fi
  

• Zsh prompt:
  Add the following line to your ~/.zshrc or /etc/zsh/zshrc:

  if [[ -r ~/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/zsh/powerline.zsh ]]; then
      source ~/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/zsh/powerline.zsh
  fi
  

• Tmux statusline:
  Add the following line to your ~/.tmux.conf:

  source ~/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/powerline/bindings/tmux/powerline.conf
  set-option -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
  

  If your terminal supports 256 colours, set TERM environment variable to xterm-256color by modifying ~/.bashrc or /etc/bash.bashrc and adding following line:

  export TERM=xterm-256color
  

  To check if your terminal supports 256 colours check the documentation of your terminal or google it. Most popular terminals support 256 colours.

Usage: (for system wide installation)

• Vim statusline:
  Add following to your ~/.vimrc or /etc/vim/vimrc:

  set rtp+=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/powerline/bindings/vim/
  
  " Always show statusline
  set laststatus=2
  
  " Use 256 colours (Use this setting only if your terminal supports 256 colours)
  set t_Co=256
  

• Bash prompt:
  Add the following line to your ~/.bashrc or /etc/bash.bashrc:

  if [ -f /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh ]; then
      source /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh
  fi
  

• Zsh prompt:
  Add the following line to your ~/.zshrc or /etc/zsh/zshrc:

  if [[ -r /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/powerline/bindings/zsh/powerline.zsh ]]; then
      source /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/powerline/bindings/zsh/powerline.zsh
  fi
  

• Tmux statusline:
  Add the following line to your ~/.tmux.conf:

  source /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/powerline/bindings/tmux/powerline.conf
  set-option -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
  

  If your terminal supports 256 colours, Set TERM environment variable to xterm-256color by modifying ~/.bashrc or /etc/bash.bashrc and adding following line:

  export TERM=xterm-256color
  

  To check if your terminal supports 256 colours check the documentation of your terminal or google it. Most popular terminals support 256 colours.

Configuration:

For detailed information on configuring Powerline: Configuration.

Uninstall:

To uninstall Powerline run one of following commands in terminal:

• To uninstall per user installation:

  pip uninstall powerline
  

• To uninstall system wide installation:

  su -c 'pip uninstall powerline'
  

_{Source: Powerline beta documentation}

Alternatives:

If you're installing Powerline just for Vim you should try vim-airline which is more customizable and lightweight.

As of Ubuntu 14.10 (utopic), a powerline package is available in the universe repository. To install it, just run this command in your terminal :

sudo apt-get install powerline

Alternatively, you should be able to install it by using the Ubuntu Software Center.

Though this has been answered, it seems the solution may also be somewhat overkill in terms of the installment for Bash at this point in time. Unaware am I if Powerline was available in the earlier repos, but it is available in the current repos. That being said, it's much less abstracted for Bash right now.

Install Powerline using this command;

sudo apt install powerline

For per user configuration, edit your .bashrc with your text editor of choice.

gedit ~/.bashrc

And append this to the document;

if [ -f `which powerline-daemon` ]; then
  powerline-daemon -q
  POWERLINE_BASH_CONTINUATION=1
  POWERLINE_BASH_SELECT=1
  . /usr/share/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh
fi

For system configuration, edit /etc/bash.bashrc as root with your text editor of choice.

sudo su followed by gedit /bash.bashrc

and append this to the document;

if [ -f `which powerline-daemon` ]; then
  powerline-daemon -q
  POWERLINE_BASH_CONTINUATION=1
  POWERLINE_BASH_SELECT=1
  . /usr/share/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh
fi