Show 'space' character via listchars only

Question

Is it possible in Vim to have my editor (when editing .c and .h files), show via listchars, a special character only for leading space characters?

I found a separate post that noted, as of version 7.4, Vim now supports highlighting all space characters via listchars. Here's my current listchars variable:

set list listchars=tab:>-,trail:.,extends:>,precedes:<,space:.

And here is a render of how it appears on my screen:

However, I would like it to appear like so (below), where only leading spaces are rendered via listchars, and spaces occurring after indentation-related spaces are not rendered. ie:

Is there a simple way to accomplish this, either via color scheme or .vimrc changes?

---

Image diff in case the difference isn't obvious due to low contrast:

Answer 1

I don't think that linechars will help you, but this highlight might help:

highlight WhiteSpaceBol guibg=lightgreen
match WhiteSpaceBol /^ \+/

Change the color scheme for whatever you like best.

If you insist on having the fancy · you can get them with a bit of a hack:

set listchars=space:·
highlight WhiteSpaceBol guifg=blue
highlight WhiteSpaceMol guifg=white
match WhiteSpaceMol / /
2match WhiteSpaceBol /^ \+/

Now, only the starting · are visible! (change the white for whatever color you use as background and blue with the color of your choice).

NOTE: If you use the console Vim, replace (or add) guibg with ctermbg and the proper colors.