Refresh Screen - GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual

38.1 Refreshing the Screen

The function redraw-frame clears and redisplays the entire contents of a given frame (see Frames). This is useful if the screen is corrupted.

— Function: redraw-frame frame

This function clears and redisplays frame frame.

Even more powerful is redraw-display:

— Command: redraw-display

This function clears and redisplays all visible frames.

This function calls for redisplay of certain windows, the next time redisplay is done, but does not clear them first.

— Function: force-window-update &optional object

This function forces some or all windows to be updated on next redisplay. If object is a window, it forces redisplay of that window. If object is a buffer or buffer name, it forces redisplay of all windows displaying that buffer. If object is nil (or omitted), it forces redisplay of all windows.

Processing user input takes absolute priority over redisplay. If you call these functions when input is available, they do nothing immediately, but a full redisplay does happen eventually—after all the input has been processed.

Normally, suspending and resuming Emacs also refreshes the screen. Some terminal emulators record separate contents for display-oriented programs such as Emacs and for ordinary sequential display. If you are using such a terminal, you might want to inhibit the redisplay on resumption.

— Variable: no-redraw-on-reenter

This variable controls whether Emacs redraws the entire screen after it has been suspended and resumed. Non-nil means there is no need to redraw, nil means redrawing is needed. The default is nil.

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