Open search result in the same window

Question

Say I run ag or grep via M-x and display a window with search results. Say I then use my enter key to open a result. How can I force emacs to open this result in the same window as the search results are currently displaying, rather than a different window?

Do you mean the same window instead of buffer? Reusing the same buffer would overwrite the search results. See also the answers to this question for further clarification. — Basil, Jun 30 '17 at 05:34
Do you want to be able to pick between using the current or a different window, or do you only ever want the current window to be reused? — Basil, Jun 30 '17 at 09:50
Ideally I am looking for the equivalent of pressing o vs Enter in Dired mode (e,g an easy way to pick one or the other)
Thanks for the links, will look through them over lunch! — Abraham P, Jun 30 '17 at 10:01
@AbrahamP Note that the links are relevant since grep-mode is derived from compilation-mode. — Tobias, Jun 30 '17 at 10:10
@AbrahamP A cursory glance reveals that the compilation-mode (as @Tobias usefully elaborated) family is pretty keen on opening a new window, but ag is special in that it provides the boolean user option ag-reuse-window. So an ag-specific solution would be to write a command revolving around (let ((ag-reuse-window t)) (call-interactively #'compile-goto-error)). — Basil, Jun 30 '17 at 10:16

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 02 '17 at 00:06

Something like this should work for all modes derived from compilation-mode:

(defun my-compile-goto-error-same-window ()
  (interactive)
  (let ((display-buffer-overriding-action
         '((display-buffer-reuse-window
            display-buffer-same-window)
           (inhibit-same-window . nil))))
    (call-interactively #'compile-goto-error)))

(defun my-compilation-mode-hook ()
  (local-set-key (kbd "o") #'my-compile-goto-error-same-window))

(add-hook 'compilation-mode-hook #'my-compilation-mode-hook)

With this snippet added to your init file, pressing o in a grep buffer (or any buffer derived from compilation-mode) will open the location in the same window.

Open search result in the same window

1 Answers1