Emacs: Display Line Numbers

By Xah Lee. Date: 2009-08-12. Last updated: 2017-07-25.

emacs has 2 line numbers mode.

global-display-line-numbers-mode

Emacs 26 (beta as of 2017-07-25) has a new line number mode.

Alt+x global-display-line-numbers-mode

Alt+x display-line-numbers-mode

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.

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)]

To toggle it in current buffer, Alt+x linum-mode.

To toggle globally, Alt+x global-linum-mode.

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

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

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.

Liket it? Put $1 at patreon. Or Buy Xah Emacs Tutorial. Thanks.