NAME

wc — line, word, character, byte, and line length count

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

For each file (standard input stream if "-", the default), writes the amount of lines, words, characters, bytes, or the maximum line width, followed by the filename, if any, separated by spaces, to the standard output stream. If more than one filename was specified, a total is produced as well.

With --files0-from, the contents of files (standard input stream if "-") are used as a NUL-separated list of filenames instead.

If none of -lwmcL are specified, defaults to -lwc. The output is columnated and always in the -lwmcL order. -wcL operate according to the current locale, conversion errors are silently ignored.

If only -c is selected, the size is taken from fstat(2) for regular files, and the appropriate ioctl(2) for devices, if supported.

OPTIONS

-l, --lines

Number of newline (0x0A) bytes.

-w, --words

Number of words, defined as non-whitespace separated by whitespace in the current locale.

-m, --chars

Number of characters in the current locale.

-c, --bytes

Number of bytes read.

-L, --max-line-length

The widest line according to the current locale. Lines are delimited by newlines, carriage returns, and form feeds, tabs stopped at 8 columns, and non-printable characters ignored.

--files0-from=files

Read filenames from NUL-separated files instead of arguments.

EXIT STATUS

1 if a file couldn't be opened or read. Diagnostics are withheld and mixed in with their corresponding output line, if any.

EXAMPLES

Assuming a default UTF-8 encoding:

$ cat form
Groceries for February:
        Bananas 3.5kg   $4.51
        Kiwis   2kg     $3.19   Call §iegfried to explain short!
        Bread           $20.21
$ cat data
147.312$        12$     12      2.3%
11 520$ 320$    30      20%

$ wc form data
4 16 111 form
2  9  41 data
6 25 152 total

$ wc -lwmcL form data
4 16 110 111 64 form
2  9  41  41 36 data
6 25 151 152 64 total

$ printf '\x88' | wc -lwmcL  # Invalid UTF-8: one byte, no characters
0 0 0 1 0

SEE ALSO

iswspace(3), wcwidth(3)

STANDARDS

Conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”), except that additional spaces are inserted between numbers, if need be, to achieve columnation. POSIX only specifies -lwmc, with -m excluding -c: accepting them together, -L, and --files0-from are extensions, originating from the GNU system. The column order is compatible therewith.

Be wary about assuming anything about the spacing of the numbers — the standard forbids it, but all known implementations ignore that in some form or another: some implementations columnate, usually inconsistently, others output fixed-with space-padded numbers, regardless of the fields selected. Tokenisation is required to achieve consistent results.

NetBSD and FreeBSD support -L, but FreeBSD counts in bytes unless -m. Under NetBSD, -mc override each other. Under OpenBSD, -m overrides -c.

HISTORY

Appears in the first edition of the UNIX Programmer's Manual as wc(I):

@ cat wc-test
.ft B
wc test
@ wc wc-test

File: wc-test
   text 1 lines
control 1 lines
  words 2

Version 3 AT&T UNIX extends control lines to start with ‘!’ and ‘'’ and outputs a total if at least two files were specified.

Version 4 AT&T UNIX reads the standard input stream if no files were specified.

Version 5 AT&T UNIX sees a new implementation in C with no total, but a familiar output format:

A Version 5 AT&T UNIX manual page dated 10th of March, 1974 paints a much more complex, but clearly derived from the above implementation, image:

Version 6 AT&T UNIX inherits the former implementation, with an added re-appearance of the total count.

Version 7 AT&T UNIX sports a familiar

$ ./wc3 -v -u wc*
lines   words   chars   pages   time@300
11      76      18200   1       11.2 mi  wc
8       65      16936   1       10.4 mi  wc2
86      196     1356    2       50.0 se  wc2.c
15      79      17464   1       10.8 mi  wc3
195     463     5586    3        3.4 mi  wc3.c
52      101     732     1       27.0 se  wc.c
367     980     60274   9       37.2 mi  total