How can I emulate Vim's * search in GNU Emacs?

Question

In Vim the * key in normal mode searches for the word under the cursor. In GNU Emacs the closest native equivalent would be:

C-s C-w

But th

Answer 1

The highlight symbol emacs extension provides this functionality. In particular, the recommend .emacsrc setup:

(require 'highlight-symbol)

(global-set-key [(control f3)] 'highlight-symbol-at-point)
(global-set-key [f3] 'highlight-symbol-next)
(global-set-key [(shift f3)] 'highlight-symbol-prev)

Allows jumping to the next symbol at the current point (F3), jumping to the previous symbol (Shift+F3) or highlighting symbols matching the one under the cursor (Ctrl+F3). The commands continue to do the right thing if your cursor is mid-word.

Unlike vim's super star, highlighting symbols and jumping between symbols are bound to two different commands. I personally don't mind the separation, but you could bind the two commands under the same keystroke if you wanted to precisely match vim's behaviour.