Oracle Linux - Set line numbers in VI by default

Without fail almost all Linux distributions come with an editor, vi, that can be used from the command line. Most people who spend time on the Linux command line will be able to use vi. One of the things that can be done in vi is setting line numbers which is extremely handy when you are working on code from the command line. When you do want to set line number on you can do so directly from within vi.

Setting line numbers on can be done using:

:set nu

However when you need to do this often setting the line number to on every time you open vi can become annoying. You would like to have line numbers on by default. The easy way to do so is by ensuring you have a local setting file for vi in your home directory, the file should be named: .vimrc

adding the below content to .vimrc in you home directory will ensure that line numbers are always on when you start vi under Oracle Linux.

[root@localhost ~]# cat ~/.vimrc 
set number
[root@localhost ~]# 

This is however only one of many settings you can do to change the default behaviour of vi. When working a lot with vi you might want to dive a bit into the options to influence the default behaviour as it can save you a lot of time.