Line numbers only in certain modes

Question

Is there a way to get line numbering only in specific modes, i.e Python, Java, C++, etc., rather than in every window? I thought I saw something about this the other day, but I can't find it.

Currently I'm set up that the default is just to have linum-mode on persistenly. It's kind of annoying in the shell.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Assuming you want to use it all major programming modes and you're using Emacs 24.x, you can use this snippet:

(add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'linum-mode)

Answer 2

I didn't turn linum on globally.

Instead I turn linum on for the major mode in which I want it. For example:

(add-hook 'clojure-mode-hook '(lambda () (linum-on)))

or simply:

(add-hook 'clojure-mode-hook 'linum-mode)

Related here:

Turning on linum-mode when in python/c mode

and here:

Emacs Org-Mode: Turn off line numbers