How to detect modified buffer in the mode-line, skipping special buffers?

Asked May 06 '20 at 08:46

Active May 06 '20 at 09:48

Viewed 36 times

I'm trying to have my mode-line to display a "(modified)" string instead of the * mark. To do that, I make a test with buffer-modified-p but this seems to be always true for "special" buffers as well (such as for example completion list or org agenda). What would be the proper way to do the test (i.e. files that have been modified by me) ? Here is the relevant part of my code: '(:eval (if (buffer-modified-p) "%b (modified)" "%b"))

Solution:

'(:eval (if (and (or buffer-file-name
                    (string= (buffer-name) "*scracth*"))
                 (buffer-modified-p))
            "%b (modified)" "%b"))

edited May 06 '20 at 09:48

asked May 06 '20 at 08:46

Nicolas Rougier

1

Perhaps, you want `(and buffer-file-name (buffer-modified-p))` as test? – Tobias May 06 '20 at 09:05
Yes, that seems to do the trick. – Nicolas Rougier May 06 '20 at 09:08
But it does not work with the "*scracth*" buffer – Nicolas Rougier May 06 '20 at 09:11
1

That depends what you want with the scratch buffer. It is (normally) not associated with a file. So do you want to have the modification notification there? – Tobias May 06 '20 at 09:16
Ideally yes, but that's not a big deal if I cannot. I guess I can add a specific `(eq buffer-name "*scratch*")` for this special case. – Nicolas Rougier May 06 '20 at 09:20
1

Yes, or `(derived-mode-p 'lisp-interaction-mode)` if you want to allow multiple scratch buffers. – Tobias May 06 '20 at 09:24
My scratch buffer is in text mode. I just discovered that `buffer-name` seems to be empty for the scratch buffer. This is weird since I'm able to display it using the `%b` construct. – Nicolas Rougier May 06 '20 at 09:30
1

`(buffer-name)` should work. – Tobias May 06 '20 at 09:35
This `(if (eq (buffer-name) "*scratch*") (message "true") (message "false"))` evalutes to false in the scratch buffer. I'm probably missing something. – Nicolas Rougier May 06 '20 at 09:42
Stupid errorr: `string=` not `eq`. – Nicolas Rougier May 06 '20 at 09:45

How to detect modified buffer in the mode-line, skipping special buffers?

0 Answers0