Is it possible to scroll in isearch mode?

Question

Is there a way to scroll through a document without exiting isearch mode? I have isearch-allow-scroll set to t, but that limits my scroll range to make sure the current isearch match is visible in the buffer. Ideally, I would like to be able to scroll with the mousewheel, having all the isearch matches highlighted as I scroll.

I am aware of M-x occur, but a lot of the time simply being able to scroll in isearch mode would be more efficient (in addition, M-x occur does not play well with folding mode).

Also, this might be related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/589691/how-can-i-emulate-vims-search-in-gnu-emacs — Yoo, Apr 09 '10 at 19:53

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 18 '10 at 05:27

5

There's also highlight-regexp if you want. It will highlight regexps and you can scroll as usual.

answered Mar 18 '10 at 05:27

Noufal Ibrahim

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score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 18 '10 at 15:18

2

It looks like what you want is not possible in general. From the documentation inside isearch.el:

;; scrolling within Isearch mode.  Alan Mackenzie (acm@muc.de), 2003/2/24
;;
;; The idea here is that certain vertical scrolling commands (like C-l
;; `recenter') should be usable WITHIN Isearch mode.  For a command to be
;; suitable, it must NOT alter the buffer, swap to another buffer or frame,
;; tamper with isearch's state, or move point.  It is unacceptable for the
;; search string to be scrolled out of the current window.  If a command
;; attempts this, we scroll the text back again.

In other words, it's not possible to scroll far enough that the search string moves out of the window.

answered Mar 18 '10 at 15:18

Trey Jackson

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I see. Vim's behavior is a little more sensible to me in that regard (scrolling is allowed, and "next match" takes you to the next match in the visible region). – Leo Alekseyev Mar 18 '10 at 18:17
@Leo I think scrolling would be nice, but I like the "next match" going anywhere (not just visible). I'm not 100%, but I think that the isearch is based off the current point, and by scrolling the current match off the screen (changing the point), that's what messes up the isearch. – Trey Jackson Mar 18 '10 at 18:21

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 21 '11 at 19:52

Try Icicles search -- for example, icicle-occur (bound to C-' in Icicle mode).

Nothing prevents you from scrolling as far as you like with the mouse etc.

Icicles search is a different kind of incremental search. icicle-occur is like an incremental occur: as you edit your input in the minibuffer the lines are filtered by that input.

Search hit candidates are completion candidates (e.g., appear in *Completions*). You can navigate among hits in the searched buffer using C-down, or you can jump directly using C-RET or C-mouse-2.

Is it possible to scroll in isearch mode?

3 Answers3