Activate global minor modes from use-package

Question

I used global-company-mode from my .emacs like this:

(add-hook 'after-init-hook 'global-company-mode)

Now I’m trying to move to use-package, like this:

(use-package company
  :config
  (global-company-mode))

Now if I check with C-h m, company-mode is said to be active, but it’s not listed on my modeline (I don’t use anything that would hide it). And it actually works, as I get the company popup, when I start typing a function or variable name.

whitespace-mode is much worse, though:

(use-package whitespace
  :ensure t  ;; I also tried without this line
  :config
    (global-whitespace-mode)
  :bind
  (([f10] . whitespace-mode)
   ([(shift f10)] . global-whitespace-mode)))

Now WS doesn’t appear on my modeline as expected (again, I don’t hide anything) and I cannot see its effects like the end-of-line marker $ characters, and it’s not even listed when I press C-h m. But when I press shift f10, it says

Global Whitespace mode disabled

and when I press it again, I get the message that it got enabled, and I can also see the effects in all my buffers (and in C-h m).

What am I missing?

Edit: I just realised that diminish is actually installed as a dependency (I’m trying to figure out what pulled it in). However, diminished-mode-alist is nil, so I don’t think that’s the reason of mode names not displaying in my mode line (correct me if I’m wrong).

Edit2: deferring loading the diminish package solved the company problem, but the whitespace related one still persists.

that is strange. Try putting this in your .emacs and see if company-mode is not appearing in mode-line :- (use-package diminish :defer t). You'd have to restart emacs after you modify .emacs — Chakravarthy Raghunandan, Oct 12 '16 at 15:09
that solved the company-related problem, but the whitespace thing still remains… — GergelyPolonkai, Oct 12 '16 at 17:15
how about enabling whitespace-mode like so :- (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'whitespace-mode) ? — Chakravarthy Raghunandan, Oct 12 '16 at 17:41
I actually used after-init-hook before switching to use-package; it worked fine. The strange thing here is that the global-whitespace-mode is t, yet, its effects are not visible unless I toggle it twice. — GergelyPolonkai, Oct 12 '16 at 20:38

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 12 '16 at 21:58

I don't know why company-mode is getting diminished, but I think I know what's going on with whitespace-mode. Your block

(use-package whitespace
  :ensure t  ;; I also tried without this line
  :config
    (global-whitespace-mode)
  :bind
  (([f10] . whitespace-mode)
   ([(shift f10)] . global-whitespace-mode)))

will automatically defer loading the whitespace package because it includes a :bind. So nothing happens until you press S-<f10>, at which time the package gets loaded, your :config block runs, and global-whitespace-mode is enabled. Then your keypress is processed, and the mode is promptly disabled again. There are three solutions that occur to me:

You could change your :config into an :init and rely on the fact that global-whitespace-mode is autoloaded to load the package for you.
You could add a :demand t line, to cancel :bind's deferment.
You could add :defer N, where N is an integer. This will trigger loading whenver Emacs is idle for N seconds.

All of these options are detailed in the C-h f help for the use-package macro, for further reference.

Indeed, and it is actually in the docstring, thanks for pointing me towards it. I wasn’t checking all the options I can pass to use-package, and :demand slipped my eye. Maybe it would worth it to update the :bind documentation so it tells you about this deferring. — GergelyPolonkai, Oct 13 '16 at 09:15

Activate global minor modes from use-package

1 Answers1