Every time I work in the console I use GNU Screen. I have a custom .screenrc file with several settings. Among others I have the setting that shows 'tabs' in the bottom:
hardstatus alwayslastline
hardstatus string "%{= g} %{= w}%-w%{=r}%n %t%{-}%+W"
It works well, but I want to add to the tabs some symbol that shows what tab was previously active. How can this be done?
You can use can use following string:
hardstatus string "%{= g} %{= w}%-Lw%{=r}%n%f* %t%{-}%+LW"
Than window with focus will be marked with symbol '*' and previous one - with '-'.
Alas, comments support only a bit of formatting abilities, so i created a new answer.
1) There is some '$' symbol after every tab number that are not needed
With hardstatus string "%{= g} %{= w}%-Lw%{=r}%n%f* %t%{-}%+LW" i can't see any '$':
2) the symbols '' and '-' make the tab one symbol wider and because of that the tabs jumps a little. I think it can be solved by placing space if there is no '' and '-' symbols.
Alas, all tabs besides selected are not configured - they are just shown if %w ( all windows including current ) or %W ( all windows except current ) are used in hardstatus string. These escapes can be prepended with - or + ( to show windows before or after current one ) and L ( to show window's flags ). Spaces, or formatting, or content of these parts of line can't be configured - they have only tab's number, title and optionally flags with fixed indents.
3) The symbol '*' is not needed because there is also a color selection of the current tab.
Sure, you can replace * with space after %f in hardstatus string with two spaces ( sorry for strange sentence, but SO text engine eats spaces in backticks weirdly ) - but without adjusting spaces after tab's number for non-active and non-last tabs they continue "to jump".