The Nano Editor is the most famous text editor for the console after vi/vim. What makes it popular is the ease of use.
By default you will not see a gutter area with line numbers when you open a file with Nano, there are multiple ways in which we can enable line numbers in Nano, let's take a look at a few of them.
Using the --linenumbers or -l flag
When you open a file, just add --linenumbers to it.
nano --linenumbers datafile.txt
or,
nano -l datafile.txt
![nano show line numbers example nano show line numbers example](https://code2care.org/q/nano-show-line-numbers/images/nano show line numbers example.jpg)
![Line numbers as displayed in Nano Editor Line numbers as displayed in Nano Editor](https://code2care.org/q/nano-show-line-numbers/images/Line numbers as displayed in Nano Editor.jpg)
Toggle Line Numbers
If you have already opened a file using nano, and you want to display the line numbers, then you can toggle line numbers as follows,
On macOS
Esc + n
On Windows
Alt + Shift + 3
Alt + #
Esc + n
Alt + Shift + 3
Alt + #
![Press Escape N on macOS to Toggle Line Numbers Press Escape N on macOS to Toggle Line Numbers](https://code2care.org/q/nano-show-line-numbers/images/Press Escape N on macOS to Toggle Line Numbers.jpg)
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Rakesh (He/Him) has over 14+ years of experience in Web and Application development. He is the author of insightful How-To articles for Code2care.
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