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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 nonempty sequence of non white space delimited by white space characters or by start or end of input.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

The options below may be used to select which counts are printed, always in the following order: newline, word, character, byte, maximum line length.

print the byte counts
print the character counts
print the newline counts
read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If F is - then read names from standard input
print the maximum display width
print the word counts
when to print a line with total counts; WHEN can be: auto, always, only, never
display this help and exit
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 © 2024 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'

September 2024 GNU coreutils 9.5