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How get a list of active minor modes in current buffer?

Docs (info "(elisp)Minor Mode Conventions") say:

 Define a variable whose name ends in ‘-mode’.  We call this the
 "mode variable".  The minor mode command should set this variable.
 The value will be ‘nil’ if the mode is disabled, and non-‘nil’ if
 the mode is enabled.  The variable should be buffer-local if the
 minor mode is buffer-local.

I ended with:

(dolist (m minor-mode-list)
  (when (symbol-value m)
    (push m modes)))

describe-mode sources have notes that:

;; Older packages do not register in minor-mode-list but only in
;; minor-mode-alist.

I don't know if that still valid point...

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    Doesn't describe-mode give you an adequate list of the active minor modes in the current buffer? – Drew Apr 20 '15 at 1:28
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    @Drew It sounds like he maybe wants it programmatically? – nanny Apr 20 '15 at 18:56
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    @nanny: Yes, I guessed that. In that cases, one place to start would be to look at the code for describe-mode - if that is otherwise adequate. – Drew Apr 20 '15 at 20:32
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I tested the (mapcar #'car minor-mode-alist) solution, but its length doesn't change after I disable a minor mode (while M-x describe-mode reflects this). Moreover, it seems inaccurate as I can't find some minor-modes listed by M-x describe-mode.

I tried the package manage-minor-mode which allows users to enable/disable a minor-mode through an interface. manager-minor-mode doesn't have the issues aforementioned and here is the function it uses to look up active minor-modes:

(defun manage-minor-mode--active-list ()
  "Get a list of which minor modes are enabled in the current buffer."
  (let ($list)
    (mapc (lambda ($mode)
            (condition-case nil
                (if (and (symbolp $mode) (symbol-value $mode))
                    (setq $list (cons $mode $list)))
              (error nil)))
          minor-mode-list)
    (sort $list 'string<)))
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  • Yeah, minor-mode-list & minor-mode-alist are just global registries. In order to filter buffer local enabled minor modes I think we need to check symbol value NAME-mode is t. The code you provided does this within expression (and (symbolp $mode) (symbol-value $mode)) (though it checks for non-nil). Great idea, tnx! – gavenkoa Dec 22 '20 at 21:57
16

If you're just looking to see what minor modes are being used in a buffer, but don't need to use the list programmatically use:

M-x describe-mode

This command will open a new buffer that begins with a full list of your minor modes, as well as giving a brief description of the major modes, and any parent modes that may have been run.

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    While this may not exactly answer the question of the OP, this was the first result I found when searching for this question. Since Drew's comment solved my use case, I thought it deserved a full answer for future searchers. – Wilduck Jun 1 '16 at 15:08
  • +1 for demonstrating the more general purpose solution to the problem. describe-mode is especially useful! – ephsmith Sep 14 '17 at 2:03
8

Try this:

(mapcar #'car minor-mode-alist)

In fact, you will find that this value often differs from minor-mode-list.

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