This is something I’d always wished Emacs did; finally got around to finding a minor mode for it.
While the built-in line-number and column-number modes are fine, linum-mode makes it much easier to see where you are in the code at a glance.
To apply it to all buffers by default, throw the following in your .emacs:
(require 'linum)
(global-linum-mode)
Update: Now baked-in to version 23+ of Emacs!
Hi,
As this worked out for you, can you please help me. I followed the instructions and I am getting this error:
An error has occurred while loading `/home/kmodi/.emacs’:
Symbol’s function definition is void: global-linum-mode
To ensure normal operation, you should investigate the cause
of the error in your initialization file and remove it. Start
Emacs with the `–debug-init’ option to view a complete error
backtrace
How to do it in Windows XP
It should “just work”. Emacs rarely has platform-specific issues.
Thanks, your advice works by adding (global-linum-mode) in my ~/.emacs file.
I was just surprised that the global-linum-mode hadn’t been available till v.23!
The line number column is a must for me…
Linux (Xubuntu 9.04), Emacs 23
No problem.
BTW, regarding Kaushal Modi’ question from last year — which seems to have been lost in the great WordPress Comment Void — if linum-mode isn’t loading for you, then it sounds like Emacs isn’t finding linum.el. Make sure that linum.el is in your site-lisp directory (or wherever you have configured Emacs to look for .el libraries).
If you want to add a file outside of the default Emacs load-path list, try this:
(add-to-list ‘load-path “c:/some/nonstandard/directory/linum.el”)