Korn Shell Programming by Example

wc

Official Description

Counts the lines, words, characters, and bytes in a file.

Syntax

wc [-c  | -m] [-lw] [file...]

Options

-c counts bytes.

-l counts lines.

-m counts characters.

-w counts words.

Oddities

Words are separated by whitespace.

Example

$ wc buzz*                   # Lines, words, chars
       6       9      47 buzz
      11      18      90 buzz1
       6       9      47 buzz10
      16      31     152 buzz2
      12      22     116 buzz3
      16      33     165 buzz4
      67     122     617 total
$
$ wc -l buzz                 # Lines only
       6 buzz
$
$ ps laxw | wc –l            # Useful in pipes
      42
$