A string is printed verbatim in the mode line except for %-constructs:
%b -- print buffer name. %f -- print visited file name.
%F -- print frame name.
%* -- print %, * or hyphen. %+ -- print *, % or hyphen.
%& is like %*, but ignore read-only-ness.
% means buffer is read-only and * means it is modified.
For a modified read-only buffer, %* gives % and %+ gives *.
%s -- print process status. %l -- print the current line number.
%c -- print the current column number (this makes editing slower).
Columns are numbered starting from the left margin, and the
leftmost column is displayed as zero.
To make the column number update correctly in all cases,
‘column-number-mode’ must be non-nil.
%C -- Like %c, but the leftmost column is displayed as one.
%i -- print the size of the buffer.
%I -- like %i, but use k, M, G, etc., to abbreviate.
%p -- print percent of buffer above top of window, or Top, Bot or All.
%P -- print percent of buffer above bottom of window, perhaps plus Top,
or print Bottom or All.
%n -- print Narrow if appropriate.
%t -- visited file is text or binary (if OS supports this distinction).
%z -- print mnemonics of keyboard, terminal, and buffer coding systems.
%Z -- like %z, but including the end-of-line format.
%e -- print error message about full memory.
%@ -- print @ or hyphen. @ means that default-directory is on a
remote machine.
%[ -- print one [ for each recursive editing level. %] similar.
%% -- print %. %- -- print infinitely many dashes.
Decimal digits after the % specify field width to which to pad.
The following `%` -construct is still supported, but it is obsolete, since you can get the same result using the variable `mode-name` .
`%m` The value of `mode-name` .