Change face for ivy-custom-match

Question

From the Ivy manual:

Customizability is about being able to use different methods and interfaces of completion to tailor the selection process. For example, adding a custom display function that points to a selected candidate with ->, instead of highlighting the selected candidate with the ivy-current-match>>

I've tried to customize the face to look like the one in IDO, with the "->", but to no avail. I can only seem to change the background and font of the face with (ivy-current-match), not manipulate the actual string. Does anyone know?

Answer 1

If you want the selected match to be displayed as an arrow, you should customize ivy-format-function, here's the definition:

(defcustom ivy-format-function 'ivy-format-function-default
  "Function to transform the list of candidates into a string.
This string is inserted into the minibuffer."
  :type '(choice
          (const :tag "Default" ivy-format-function-default)
          (const :tag "Arrow prefix" ivy-format-function-arrow)
          (const :tag "Full line" ivy-format-function-line)))

The option that you want is thus:

(setq ivy-format-function 'ivy-format-function-arrow)

If you insist on having -> instead of the default >, look up the definition:

(defun ivy-format-function-arrow (cands)
  "Transform CAND-PAIRS into a string for minibuffer."
  (ivy--format-function-generic
   (lambda (str)
     (concat "> " (ivy--add-face str 'ivy-current-match)))
   (lambda (str)
     (concat "  " str))
   cands
   "\n"))

Copy-paste into your own function:

(defun my-ivy-format-function-arrow (cands)
  "Transform CAND-PAIRS into a string for minibuffer."
  (ivy--format-function-generic
   (lambda (str)
     (concat "-> " (ivy--add-face str 'ivy-current-match)))
   (lambda (str)
     (concat "   " str))
   cands
   "\n"))
(setq ivy-format-function 'my-ivy-format-function-arrow)

If you're not very experienced with Elisp, I recommend to go through M-x customize-group ivy and use the GUI to play around with the parameters.