WC(1) BSD General Commands Manual WC(1)
wc -- word, line, character, and byte count
wc [-clmw] [file ...]
The wc utility displays the number of lines, words, and bytes contained in each input file, or standard input
(if no file is specified) to the standard output. A line is defined as a string of characters delimited by a
<newline> character. Characters beyond the final <newline> character will not be included in the line count.
A word is defined as a string of characters delimited by white space characters. White space characters are the
set of characters for which the iswspace(3) function returns true. If more than one input file is specified, a
line of cumulative counts for all the files is displayed on a separate line after the output for the last file.
The following options are available:
-c The number of bytes in each input file is written to the standard output. This will cancel out any
prior usage of the -m option.
-l The number of lines in each input file is written to the standard output.
-m The number of characters in each input file is written to the standard output. If the current locale
does not support multibyte characters, this is equivalent to the -c option. This will cancel out any
prior usage of the -c option.
-w The number of words in each input file is written to the standard output.
When an option is specified, wc only reports the information requested by that option. The order of output
always takes the form of line, word, byte, and file name. The default action is equivalent to specifying the
-c, -l and -w options.
If no files are specified, the standard input is used and no file name is displayed. The prompt will accept
input until receiving EOF, or [^D] in most environments.