Reference: wc
Author: Daniel Gilly & the Staff of O'Reilly & Associates
Date: 1998-08-06T21:56:42Z

#

| Chapter 2 UNIX Commands |

## wc

    wc [options] [files]

Print a character, word, and line count for `files`. If no `files` are given, read standard input. See other examples under ls and sort.

### Options

-c

  Print character count only.

-l

  Print line count only.

-w

  Print word count only.

### Examples

Count the number of users logged in:

>     who | wc -l

Count the words in three essay files:

>     wc -w essay.[123]

Count lines in variable $file (don't display filename):

>     wc -l <$file

Reference: wall |  | Reference: what