1.\" $OpenBSD: wc.1,v 1.28 2024/09/11 03:57:14 guenther Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 7.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. 8.\" 9.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 10.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 11.\" are met: 12.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 14.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 15.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 16.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 17.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 18.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 19.\" without specific prior written permission. 20.\" 21.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 22.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 23.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 24.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 25.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 26.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 27.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 28.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 29.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 30.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 31.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 32.\" 33.\" from: @(#)wc.1 8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94 34.\" 35.Dd $Mdocdate: September 11 2024 $ 36.Dt WC 1 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm wc 40.Nd word, line, and byte or character count 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm wc 43.Op Fl c | m 44.Op Fl hlw 45.Op Ar 46.Sh DESCRIPTION 47The 48.Nm 49utility reads one or more input text files and, by 50default, writes the number of lines, words, and bytes 51contained in each input file to the standard output. 52If more than one input file is specified, 53a line of cumulative count(s) for all named files is output on a 54separate line following the last file count. 55.Nm 56considers a word to be a maximal string of characters delimited by 57whitespace. 58Whitespace characters are the set of characters for which the 59.Xr isspace 3 60function returns true. 61.Pp 62The options are as follows: 63.Bl -tag -width Ds 64.It Fl c 65The number of bytes in each input file 66is written to the standard output. 67.It Fl h 68Use unit suffixes: Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, 69Petabyte, and Exabyte in order to reduce the number of digits to four or fewer 70using powers of 2 for sizes (K=1024, M=1048576, etc.). 71.It Fl l 72The number of lines in each input file 73is written to the standard output. 74.It Fl m 75Count characters instead of bytes, and use 76.Xr iswspace 3 77instead of 78.Xr isspace 3 . 79.It Fl w 80The number of words in each input file 81is written to the standard output. 82.El 83.Pp 84When an option is specified, 85.Nm 86only reports the information requested by that option. 87The default action is equivalent to the flags 88.Fl clw 89having been specified. 90.Pp 91If no file names are specified, the standard input is used 92and a file name is not output. 93The resulting output is one 94line of the requested count(s) with the cumulative sum 95of all files read in via standard input. 96.Pp 97By default, the standard output contains a line for each 98input file of the form: 99.Bd -literal -offset indent 100lines words bytes file_name 101.Ed 102.Pp 103The counts for lines, words, and bytes 104.Pq or characters 105are integers separated by spaces. 106.Sh ENVIRONMENT 107.Bl -tag -width LC_CTYPE 108.It Ev LC_CTYPE 109The character encoding 110.Xr locale 1 . 111It decides which byte sequences form characters. 112If unset or set to 113.Qq C , 114.Qq POSIX , 115or an unsupported value, 116.Fl m 117has the same effect as 118.Fl c . 119.El 120.Sh EXIT STATUS 121.Ex -std wc 122.Sh SEE ALSO 123.Xr isspace 3 124.Sh STANDARDS 125The 126.Nm 127utility is compliant with the 128.St -p1003.1-2024 129specification. 130.Pp 131The flag 132.Op Fl h 133is an extension to that specification. 134.Sh HISTORY 135A 136.Nm 137utility appeared in 138.At v1 . 139