xref: /netbsd-src/usr.bin/wc/wc.1 (revision ddac411ea4e2b1c84969e12a1681c830e3579608)
1.\"	$NetBSD: wc.1,v 1.18 2019/09/01 18:44:06 sevan Exp $
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33.\"     from: @(#)wc.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
34.\"
35.Dd September 1, 2019
36.Dt WC 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm wc
40.Nd word, line, and byte count
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl c | Fl m
44.Op Fl Llw
45.Op Ar file ...
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Nm
49utility displays the number of lines, words, bytes and characters contained in each
50input
51.Ar file
52(or standard input, by default) to the standard output.
53A line is defined as a string of characters delimited by a <newline>
54character,
55and a word is defined as a string of characters delimited by white space
56characters.
57White space characters are the set of characters for which the
58.Xr iswspace 3
59function returns true.
60If more than one input file is specified, a line of cumulative counts
61for all the files is displayed on a separate line after the output for
62the last file.
63.Pp
64The following options are available:
65.Bl -tag -width Ds
66.It Fl c
67The number of bytes in each input file
68is written to the standard output.
69.It Fl L
70The number of characters in the longest line of each input file
71is written to the standard output.
72.It Fl l
73The number of lines in each input file
74is written to the standard output.
75.It Fl m
76The number of characters in each input file
77is written to the standard output.
78.It Fl w
79The number of words in each input file
80is written to the standard output.
81.El
82.Pp
83When an option is specified,
84.Nm
85only
86reports the
87information requested by that option.
88The default action is equivalent to all the flags
89.Fl clw
90having been specified.
91.Pp
92The following operands are available:
93.Bl -tag -width Ds
94.It Ar file
95A pathname of an input file.
96.El
97.Pp
98If no file names
99are specified, the standard input is used and
100no file name is displayed.
101.Pp
102By default, the standard output contains a line for each
103input file of the form:
104.Bd -literal -offset indent
105lines	 words	bytes	file_name
106.Ed
107.Sh EXIT STATUS
108.Ex -std wc
109.Sh COMPATIBILITY
110Historically, the
111.Nm
112utility was documented to define a word as a ``maximal string of
113characters delimited by
114.Aq space ,
115.Aq tab
116or
117.Aq newline
118characters''.
119The implementation, however, didn't handle non-printing characters
120correctly so that ``  ^D^E  '' counted as 6 spaces, while ``foo^D^Ebar''
121counted as 8 characters.
122.Bx 4
123systems after
124.Bx 4.3
125modified the implementation to be consistent
126with the documentation.
127This implementation defines a ``word'' in terms of the
128.Xr iswspace 3
129function, as required by
130.St -p1003.2 .
131.Pp
132The
133.Fl L
134option is a non-standard extension, compatible with the
135.Fl L
136option of the GNU and
137.Fx
138.Nm
139utilities.
140.Sh SEE ALSO
141.Xr iswspace 3
142.Sh STANDARDS
143The
144.Nm
145utility conforms to
146.St -p1003.2-92 .
147.Sh HISTORY
148A
149.Nm
150utility appeared in
151.At v1 .
152