color rgrep matching results in the rgrep results buffer

Question

I am liking rgrep as it lets you choose a path and searches recursively. How is it possible to highlight the matches in the rgrep buffer?

Answer 1

grep (rgrep) uses two settings (that I know of) to control highlighting in the *grep* buffer

• font-lock-mode
• grep-highlight-matches - customization variable

grep-highlight-matches depends on font-lock-mode being on. It can inherit its value from grep-host-defaults-alist. It controls the use of the GREP_COLORS environment variable and grep --color argument.

In your case I'd check that font-lock-mode is enabled. From the *grep* buffer enter: C-h v font-lock-mode and see what the *Help* buffer says. The easiest way to enable it in all buffers that support font locking is to call (global-font-lock-mode t)

You can also enter M-x font-lock-fontify-buffer on a per buffer basis.

I recall it not being enabled for me in older versions of emacs and/or on certain terminals.