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Every once and a while Emacs fails at syntax highlighting and the coloring gets all funky in a buffer. Is there any way to force Emacs to "recolor" the syntax? Just try over? I don't mind if it takes a moment.

Cœur
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sligocki
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2 Answers2

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I think M-x font-lock-fontify-buffer will do what you are looking for. Or select a region and do M-o M-o (or M-x font-lock-fontify-block).

  • Thanks Jon! Worked great. I knew that there must just be some Emacs vocabulary I was missing: "Fontify". – sligocki Nov 02 '11 at 17:07
  • No problem! Glad it was useful. –  Nov 05 '11 at 22:53
  • this doesn't (currently) take into account any changes made after loading a buffer by calling (e.g. in the *scratch* buffer) `font-lock-add-keywords`. For these to be applied, you need to do `M-x normal-mode` or `M-x revert-buffer`. – Mark Jun 06 '15 at 17:22
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I once wrote the following simple function to reset the buffer to its natural mode, refontify it, bring the line where the cursor is to the center of the screen, disable the menu-bar, disable the tool-bar and move the scroll-bar left.

(defun --normal-mode-no-gimmicks ()
  "Enable buffer `normal-mode' and refontify.
Disable frame menu, toolbar, scrollbars."
  (interactive)
  (menu-bar-mode 0)
  (tool-bar-mode 0)
  (set-scroll-bar-mode 'left)
  (toggle-scroll-bar 1)
  (normal-mode) (recenter-top-bottom)
  (font-lock-fontify-buffer))

This can be very useful when the mode changes, Emacs suddenly displays the menubar or something else goes wrong. Then I just press M-g g to heal it.

(global-set-key [?\M-g ?g] '--normal-mode-no-gimmicks)

I didn't know about M-o M-o; it seems as if this could be a better key binding for this function.

Andreas Spindler
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