In Vim, how can I change the color of the StatusLine when I'm in Command Line mode?

Question

I am using Vim 8.2. I would like to change the color of the StatusLine when I enter Command Line mode with / and :.

I have the following in my .vimrc. It is supposed to change the background and foreground colors of the StatusLine of the current window and the not-current windows

augroup InsertHook
  autocmd!
  " enter command line mode
  autocmd CmdlineEnter * hi StatusLine   gui=bold guifg=#7386A7 guibg=#FFE847
  autocmd CmdlineEnter * hi StatusLineNC gui=NONE guifg=#FFE847 guibg=#9EA8BA

  " leave command line mode
  autocmd CmdlineLeave * hi StatusLine   gui=bold guifg=#EFEEC9 guibg=#7386A7
  autocmd CmdlineLeave * hi StatusLineNC gui=NONE guifg=#DFDBC5 guibg=#9EA8BA
augroup END

This kinda works, but only when I enter Command Line mode with a / and then type something. It does not work when I enter Command Line mode with a :.

I have played around with the above snippet of code, substituting CmdwinEnter and CmdwinLeave for CmdlineEnter and CmdlineLeave, respectively; and I have also tried CmdlineChanged, but I cannot get the color of the StatusLine to change instantly when entering Command Line mode with both : and /.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Controlling the highlighting of the status line is unfortunately not that straightforward.

Here is a hack that changes the status line highlight for every window when you enter/leave the command line:

hi CmdlineEnter ctermbg=green ctermfg=white
hi CmdlineLeave ctermbg=blue ctermfg=white
augroup cmd
    autocmd!
    autocmd CmdlineEnter * let &statusline = '%#CmdlineEnter#%f'
    autocmd CmdlineLeave * let &statusline = '%#CmdlineLeave#%f'
augroup END

I am not sure how it could be changed so that it only highlights the status line of the current window, though.