Do you want to show line numbers in front of each line in a file in #Linux, #macOS, #FreeBSD or #Unix? Try
cat -n /etc/passwd
nl /etc/passwd
sed -n 3,5p /etc/resolv.conf | nl
See https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/cat-line-numbers-and-ranges-under-unix-linux/ for more info.
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@nixCraft The nl utility skips empty lines & restarts line numbers at the end of logical pages. If the file happens to have a "\:" line in it, nl will confuse its users. A better option for most terminals:
less -N /etc/resolv.conf
There's also the more/less replacement "most", which shows the cursor's line number in the status bar.
