How To Show Line Numbers In vi / vim Text Editor

Q. How do I display vi / vim text editor line numbers while writing a shell script or c program? How can I turn on or off this feature?

A. Displaying line numbers under vi / vim can be very useful for debugging code errors and to improve overall readability of a program.

vi / vim show line number command

To display line numbers along the left side of a window, type any one of the following:
:set numberor
:set nu

(Fig.01: Vi / Vim line numbers in action - click to enlarge image)
To turn off line number again enter the same command:
:set nu!If you need number every time you start vi/vim, append following line to your ~/.vimrc file:
set numberSave and close the file.
Jump to particular line number from a shell prompt, enter:
$ vi +linenumber file.c $ vi +300 initlib.c