Get list of active minor modes in buffer

Question

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 stop 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...

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Try this:

(mapcar #'car minor-mode-alist)

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