xref: /openbsd-src/usr.bin/wc/wc.1 (revision 8500990981f885cbe5e6a4958549cacc238b5ae6)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: wc.1,v 1.13 2003/06/10 09:12:12 jmc Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
7.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
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33.\"     from: @(#)wc.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
34.\"
35.Dd April 19, 1994
36.Dt WC 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm wc
40.Nd word, line, and byte count
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm wc
43.Op Fl c | Fl m
44.Op Fl lw
45.Op Ar file ...
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 l
68The number of lines in each input file
69is written to the standard output.
70.It Fl m
71The number of characters in each input file
72is written to the standard output.
73.It Fl w
74The number of words in each input file
75is written to the standard output.
76.El
77.Pp
78When an option is specified,
79.Nm
80only reports the information requested by that option.
81The default action is equivalent to the flags
82.Fl clw
83having been specified.
84The
85.Fl c
86and
87.Fl m
88options are mutually exclusive.
89.Pp
90The following operands are available:
91.Bl -tag -width Ds
92.It Ar file
93A pathname of an input file.
94.El
95.Pp
96If no file names are specified, the standard input is used
97and a file name is not output.
98The resulting output is one
99line of the requested count(s) with the cumulative sum
100of all files read in via standard input.
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.Pp
108The counts for lines, words and bytes are integers separated
109by spaces.
110.Pp
111The
112.Nm
113utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.
114.Sh SEE ALSO
115.Xr isspace 3
116.Sh STANDARDS
117Historically, the
118.Nm
119utility was documented to define a word as a ``maximal string of
120characters delimited by
121.Aq space ,
122.Aq tab
123or
124.Aq newline
125characters''.
126The implementation, however, didn't handle non-printing characters
127correctly so that ``  ^D^E  '' counted as 6 spaces, while ``foo^D^Ebar''
128counted as 8 characters.
1294BSD systems after 4.3BSD modified the implementation to be consistent
130with the documentation.
131This implementation defines a
132.Dq word
133in terms of the
134.Xr isspace 3
135function, as required by
136.St -p1003.2-92 .
137.Pp
138The
139.Nm
140utility conforms to
141.St -p1003.2-92 .
142.Sh HISTORY
143A
144.Nm
145utility appeared in
146.At v1 .
147