wc - print the number of bytes, words, and lines in files

wc reads one or more input files and, by default, for each file writes a line containing the number of newlines, words, and bytes contained in each file followed by the file name to standard output in that order. A word is defined to be a non-zero length string delimited by isspace(3) characters.

If more than one file is specified, wc writes a total count for all of the named files with total written instead of the file name.

By default, wc writes all three counts. Options can specified so that only certain counts are written. The options -c and -m are mutually exclusive.

If no file is given, or if the file is -, wc reads from standard input and no filename is written to standard output. The start of the file is defined as the current offset.

-l, --lines

List the line counts.

-w, --words

List the word counts.

-c, --bytes|chars

List the byte counts.

-m|C, --multibyte-chars

List the character counts.

-q, --quiet

Suppress invalid multibyte character warnings.

-L, --longest-line|max-line-length

List the longest line length; the newline,if any, is not counted in the length.

-N, --utf8

For UTF-8 locales --noutf8 disables UTF-8 optimzations and relies on the native mbtowc(3). On by default; -N means --noutf8.

0

All files processed successfully.

>0

One or more files failed to open or could not be read.

cat(1), isspace(3)

version

wc (AT&T Research) 2009-11-28

author

Glenn Fowler <gsf@research.att.com>

author

David Korn <dgk@research.att.com>

copyright

Copyright © 1992-2012 AT&T Intellectual Property

license

http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/epl-v10.html