WC

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
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NAME

wc - print newline, word, and byte counts for each file  

SYNOPSIS

wc [,OPTION/]... [,FILE/]...
wc [,OPTION/]... ,-files-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.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#w-c'-c, --bytesX'tty: link'

print the byte counts

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#w-m'-m, --charsX'tty: link'

print the character counts

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#w-l'-l, --linesX'tty: link'

print the newline counts

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#w-debug'--debugX'tty: link'

indicate what line count acceleration is used

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#w-files-from'--files0-from=FX'tty: link'

read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If F is -, read names from standard input

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#w-L'-L, --max-line-lengthX'tty: link'

print the maximum display width

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#w-w'-w, --wordsX'tty: link'

print the word counts

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#w-total'--total=WHENX'tty: link'

when to print a line with total counts; WHEN can be: auto, always, only, never

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/wc#w-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/wc#w-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

 

AUTHOR

Written by Paul Rubin and David MacKenzie.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/wc>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) wc invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 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.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO