Question

I :set number in ~/.vimrc to show line numbers. When I type :help to view documentation, the line numbers don’t show in the new window.

If I type :setl number?, it prints nonumber. If type :setg number?, it prints number.

I want to know why ~/.vimrc doesn’t work. Which script resets the local number option?
I’ve checked the $VIMRUNTIME/ftplugin/help.vim, but it doesn’t reset the number.

---

Currently, I’m using:

if has('autocmd')
    auto FileType help set number
endif

Thanks.

Answer 1

I’m not sure what is the problem you’re having. Numbers don’t show up in help – yes, if I recall correctly that is a design decision and a feature – a good one, in my opinion, since why would one want line numbers in help files? (Okey, you could say “to quote a particular line from help file” but tags seems sufficient for that).

As far as the other thing go, when I set

 setl nonumber
 setg number

and open a new buffer in a split, numbers show.

If I start a new vim session, setlocal and setglobal number being nonumber and set number they’re both changed.

Is this the behaviour you’re having too?