WC(1)WC(1)NAMEwc - display a count of lines, words and characters in a file
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/wc
wc [-c | -m | -C] [-lw] [file]...
ksh93
wc [-c | -m | -C] [-lLqw] [file]...
DESCRIPTION
/usr/bin/wc
wc reads one or more input files and, by default, writes the number of
NEWLINE characters, words and bytes contained in each input file to the
standard output.
wc also writes a total count for all named files, if more than one
input file is specified.
wc considers a word to be a non-zero-length string of characters delim‐
ited by white space (for example, SPACE, TAB). See iswspace(3C) or iss‐
pace(3C).
ksh93
The wc built-in in ksh93 is associated with the /bin and /usr/bin
paths. It is invoked when wc is executed without a pathname prefix and
the pathname search finds a /bin/wc or /usr/bin/wc executable.
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(3C)
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 -c, -C, and -m options are mutu‐
ally exclusive.
If no file is specified, 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.
-c
--bytes | chars
List the byte counts.
-l
--lines
List the line counts.
-L
--longest-line | max-line-length
List the longest line length.
-m | C
--multibyte-chars
List the character counts.
-q
--quiet
Suppress invalid multi-byte character warnings.
-w
--words
List the word counts.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-c
Counts bytes.
-C
Same as -m.
-l
Counts lines.
-m
Counts characters.
-w
Counts words delimited by white space characters or new line
characters. Delimiting characters are Extended Unix Code (EUC)
characters from any code set defined by iswspace().
If no option is specified, the default is -lwc (counts lines, words,
and bytes.)
OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:
file
A path name of an input file. If no file operands are speci‐
fied, the standard input is used.
USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of wc when encoun‐
tering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of wc: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
and NLSPATH.
EXIT STATUS
0
Successful completion.
>0
An error occurred.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
/usr/bin/wc
┌────────────────────┬───────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│CSI │ Enabled │
├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ Committed │
├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│Standard │ See standards(5). │
└────────────────────┴───────────────────┘
ksh93
┌────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ See below. │
└────────────────────┴─────────────────┘
The ksh93 built-in binding to /bin and /usr/bin is Volatile. The
built-in interfaces are Uncommitted.
SEE ALSOcksum(1), ksh93(1), isspace(3C), iswalpha(3C), iswspace(3C), setlo‐
cale(3C), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5)
Mar 13, 2008 WC(1)
