wc(1)

NAME

wc - word, line, and byte or character count

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.

-c, --bytes: print the byte counts

-m, --chars: print the character counts

-l, --lines: print the newline counts

--debug: indicate what line count acceleration is used

--files0-from=F: read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If F is -, 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, always, only, never

--help: display this help and exit

--version: output version information and exit

AUTHOR

Written by Paul Rubin and David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS

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

COPYRIGHT

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.