xref: /openbsd-src/usr.bin/wc/wc.1 (revision b2ea75c1b17e1a9a339660e7ed45cd24946b230e)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: wc.1,v 1.10 2000/03/23 21:39:55 aaron Exp $
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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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37.\"     from: @(#)wc.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
38.\"
39.Dd April 19, 1994
40.Dt WC 1
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm wc
44.Nd word, line, and byte count
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.Nm wc
47.Op Fl c | Fl m
48.Op Fl lw
49.Op Ar file ...
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Nm
53utility reads one or more input text files, and, by
54default, writes the number of lines, words, and bytes
55contained in each input file to the standard output.
56If more than one input file is specified,
57a line of cumulative count(s) for all named files is output on a
58separate line following the last file count.
59.Nm
60considers a word to be a maximal string of characters delimited by white
61space.
62Whitespace characters are the set of characters for which the
63.Xr isspace 3
64function returns true.
65.Pp
66The options are as follows:
67.Bl -tag -width Ds
68.It Fl c
69The number of bytes in each input file
70is written to the standard output.
71.It Fl l
72The number of lines in each input file
73is written to the standard output.
74.It Fl m
75The number of characters in each input file
76is written to the standard output.
77.It Fl w
78The number of words in each input file
79is written to the standard output.
80.El
81.Pp
82When an option is specified,
83.Nm
84only reports the information requested by that option.
85The default action is equivalent to the flags
86.Fl clw
87having been specified.
88The
89.Fl c
90and
91.Fl m
92options are mutually exclusive.
93.Pp
94The following operands are available:
95.Bl -tag -width Ds
96.It Ar file
97A pathname of an input file.
98.El
99.Pp
100If no file names are specified, the standard input is used
101and a file name is not output.
102The resulting output is one
103line of the requested count(s) with the cumulative sum
104of all files read in via standard input.
105.Pp
106By default, the standard output contains a line for each
107input file of the form:
108.Bd -literal -offset indent
109lines	 words	bytes	file_name
110.Ed
111.Pp
112The counts for lines, words and bytes are integers separated
113by spaces.
114.Pp
115The
116.Nm
117utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.
118.Sh SEE ALSO
119.Xr isspace 3
120.Sh COMPATIBILITY
121Historically, the
122.Nm
123utility was documented to define a word as a ``maximal string of
124characters delimited by <space>, <tab> or <newline> characters''.
125The implementation, however, didn't handle non-printing characters
126correctly so that ``  ^D^E  '' counted as 6 spaces, while ``foo^D^Ebar''
127counted as 8 characters.
1284BSD systems after 4.3BSD modified the implementation to be consistent
129with the documentation.
130This implementation defines a
131.Dq word
132in terms of the
133.Xr isspace 3
134function, as required by
135.St -p1003.2-92 .
136.Sh STANDARDS
137The
138.Nm
139utility conforms to
140.St -p1003.2-92 .
141.Sh HISTORY
142A
143.Nm
144utility appeared in
145.At v1 .
146