6.1 wc: Print byte, word, and line counts

wc counts the number of bytes, characters, whitespace-separated words, and newlines in each given file, or standard input if none are given or for a file of `-'. Synopsis:

wc [option]... [file]...

wc prints one line of counts for each file, and if the file was given as an argument, it prints the file name following the counts. If more than one file is given, wc prints a final line containing the cumulative counts, with the file name `total'. The counts are printed in this order: newlines, words, characters, bytes. By default, each count is output right-justified in a 7-byte field with one space between fields so that the numbers and file names line up nicely in columns. However, POSIX requires that there be exactly one space separating columns. You can make wc use the POSIX-mandated output format by setting the POSIXLY_CORRECT environment variable.

By default, wc prints three counts: the newline, words, and byte counts. Options can specify that only certain counts be printed. Options do not undo others previously given, so

wc --bytes --words

prints both the byte counts and the word counts.

With the --max-line-length option, wc prints the length of the longest line per file, and if there is more than one file it prints the maximum (not the sum) of those lengths.

The program accepts the following options. Also see 2. Common options.

`-c'

`--bytes'

Print only the byte counts.

`-m'

`--chars'

Print only the character counts.

`-w'

`--words'

Print only the word counts.

`-l'

`--lines'

Print only the newline counts.

`-L'

`--max-line-length'

Print only the maximum line lengths.