diminish.el

Introduction

When we diminish a mode, we are saying we want it to continue doing its work for us, but we no longer want to be reminded of it. It becomes a night worker, like a janitor; it becomes an invisible man; it remains a component, perhaps an important one, sometimes an indispensable one, of the mechanism that maintains the day-people's world, but its place in their thoughts is diminished, usually to nothing. As we grow old we diminish more and more such thoughts, such people, usually to nothing. -- Will Mengarini

This package implements hiding or abbreviation of the mode line displays (lighters) of minor-modes.

Quick start

(require 'diminish)

(diminish 'rainbow-mode)                                       ; Hide lighter from mode-line
(diminish 'rainbow-mode " Rbow")                               ; Replace rainbow-mode lighter with " Rbow"
(diminish 'rainbow-mode 'rainbow-mode-lighter)                 ; Use raingow-mode-lighter variable value
(diminish 'rainbow-mode '(" " "R-" "bow"))                     ; Replace rainbow-mode lighter with " R-bow"
(diminish 'rainbow-mode '((" " "R") "/" "bow"))                ; Replace rainbow-mode lighter with " R/bow"
(diminish 'rainbow-mode '(:eval (format " Rbow/%s" (+ 2 3))))  ; Replace rainbow-mode lighter with " Rbow/5"
(diminish 'rainbow-mode                                        ; Replace rainbow-mode lighter with greened " Rbow"
  '(:propertize " Rbow" face '(:foreground "green")))
(diminish 'rainbow-mode                                        ; If rainbow-mode-mode-linep is non-nil " Rbow/t"
  '(rainbow-mode-mode-linep " Rbow/t" " Rbow/nil"))
(diminish 'rainbow-mode '(3 " Rbow" "/" "s"))                  ; Replace rainbow-mode lighter with " Rb"

Ref: Emacs manual - The Data Structure of the Mode Line.

John Wiegley's use-package macro also has support for diminish.el.

Acknowledgments

diminish.el was created by Will Mengarini on 19th of February 1998 and is now maintained by Martin Yrjölä.