Name

wc — stdin  stdout  - file  -- opt  --help  --version

Synopsis

wc [options] [files]

The wc (word count) program prints a count of bytes, words, and lines in a plain text file.[10]

➜ wc myfile
   24      62     428 myfile

This file has 24 lines, 62 whitespace-delimited words, and 428 bytes.

Useful options

-l

Print the line count only.

-w

Print the word count only.

-c

Print the byte count only.

[10] You can run wc on a nontext file, but the concepts of “lines” and “words” will not be well defined.

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