WC(1) User Commands WC(1)
NAME
wc - print newline, word, and byte counts for each file
SYNOPSIS
wc [OPTION]... [FILE]...
wc [OPTION]... --files0-from=F
DESCRIPTION
Print newline, word, and byte counts for each FILE, and a total line if
more than one FILE is specified. A word is a non-zero-length sequence
of printable characters delimited by white space.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
The options below may be used to select which counts are printed, al-
ways in the following order: newline, word, character, byte, maximum
line length.
-c, --bytes
print the byte counts
-m, --chars
print the character counts
-l, --lines
print the newline counts
--files0-from=F
read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in
file F; If F is - then read names from standard input
-L, --max-line-length
print the maximum display width
-w, --words
print the word counts
--total=WHEN
when to print a line with total counts; WHEN can be: auto, al-
ways, only, never
--help display this help and exit
--version
output version information and exit
AUTHOR
Written by Paul Rubin and David MacKenzie.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/wc>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) wc invocation'
GNU coreutils 9.4 June 2025 WC(1)
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