Emacs: Show Line Numbers

emacs has 2 line numbers mode.

• Alt+x linum-mode → old, hack, slow. Emacs 23 (released in 2009).
• Alt+x global-display-line-numbers-mode → Emacs 26 (released in 2018-05)

global-display-line-numbers-mode

Emacs 26 (released in 2018-05) has a new line number mode.

• Alt+x global-display-line-numbers-mode → show line numbers in all buffers.
• Alt+x display-line-numbers-mode → show line numbers in current buffer.

Put this in your emacs init file:

(when (version<= "26.0.50" emacs-version )
  (global-display-line-numbers-mode))

display-line-numbers-mode is written by Eli Zaretskii. Thanks Eli.

linum-mode

Emacs 23 (released in 2009) has a line number mode. It shows line numbers in margin. [see Emacs 23.1 New Features (released 2009-07)]

• Alt+x linum-mode → toggle line number in current.
• Alt+x global-linum-mode → toggle line number in all buffers.

To set it permanetnly, put this in your emacs init:

(global-linum-mode 1) ; always show line numbers

How to set linum line number to start at 0?

If you want line number to start at 0, put this in your emacs init file:

(require 'linum)
(setq linum-format
      (lambda (line)
        (propertize (number-to-string (1- line)) 'face 'linum)))

Setting line number to start at 0 is useful because some editors do that. See: bug#4274.

linum-mode is written by Markus Triska. Thanks Markus.

Jump to a Line Number

Alt+x goto-line → move cursor to a given line position.