How to add line numbers to a text file?

[Dennis Davis]

Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: How to add line numbers to a text file?
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References: <15248:Nov3018:01:4490 at kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <rhoward.659993691 at romeo> <18438:Nov3021:25:2590 at kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
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In article <18438:Nov3021:25:2590 at kramden.acf.nyu.edu> brnstnd at kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:
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>(Yeah, that's it: echo 'set nu' >> ~/.exinit. :-) )
>
>---Dan

Nice to see someone suggesting the use of my favourite editor :-)

However it isn't necessary to modify your .exrc startup file.  A
command line of the form:

ex - -R +'set nu|1,$p|q' filename

should suffice.

Yes, I know it suffers from the disadvantages of

  (a) Being slow and inefficient.
  (b) Will only handle a limited size of file.
  (c) You can't tailor the output.

but, what the heck, it's different :-)
-- 
Dennis Davis            JANET: D.H.Davis at UK.AC.BATH
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