WC(1)

📦
version 9.10 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

🌸 NAME 🌸

wc — bestie, it prints the newline, word, and byte counts for each file 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

wc [OPTION]... [FILE]...
wc [OPTION]... --files0-from=F

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Okay so wc is literally your counting bestie. For every single FILE you hand it, it prints the newline count, the word count, and the byte count — and if you give it more than one FILE, it hits you with a total line at the end too. And a "word"? It's a nonempty sequence of non white space, delimited by white space characters or by the start or end of input. No cap. 🦋

If you give it no FILE at all, or if FILE is -, it reads standard input. Periodt. 💅

The options down there let you pick which counts get printed, and they always come out in this exact order: newline, word, character, byte, maximum line length. iykyk.

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • -c, --bytes — prints the byte counts. raw bytes, bestie 🫶
  • -m, --chars — prints the character counts ✨
  • -l, --lines — prints the newline counts 🎀
  • --debug — tells you which line count acceleration is being used. like, it's giving behind-the-scenes 👑
  • --files0-from=F — reads input from the files named by NUL-terminated names inside file F. And if F is -, it reads those names from standard input 😌
  • -L, --max-line-length — prints the maximum display width 📏
  • -w, --words — prints the word counts 💜
  • --total=WHEN — controls when a line with total counts gets printed. WHEN can be: auto, always, only, never 🌈
  • --help — displays this help and dips out 💀
  • --version — outputs version info and exits 🦋

💅 AUTHOR 💅

Written by Paul Rubin and David MacKenzie. iconic duo, honestly.

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

Found a bug? bestie, tell the right people:

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

Packaged by Ubuntu (9.10-1ubuntu2) 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. 🙈 (yes, that's real, please note it)

okay that's the whole thing, love u, go count some words 🍓✨

GNU coreutils 9.10 · August 2026 — mwah, xoxo, see u in the next man page 💖🎀🧚

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