1WC(P) POSIX Programmer's Manual WC(P)
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6 wc - word, line, and byte or character count
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9 wc [-c|-m][-lw][file...]
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12 The wc utility shall read one or more input files and, by default,
13 write the number of <newline>s, words, and bytes contained in each
14 input file to the standard output.
15 The utility also shall write a total count for all named files, if more
17 than one input file is specified.
18 The wc utility shall consider a word to be a non-zero-length string of
20 characters delimited by white space.
21
23 The wc utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
24 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
25 The following options shall be supported:
27 -c Write to the standard output the number of bytes in each input
29 file.
30 -l Write to the standard output the number of <newline>s in each
32 input file.
33 -m Write to the standard output the number of characters in each
35 input file.
36 -w Write to the standard output the number of words in each input
38 file.
39 When any option is specified, wc shall report only the information
42 requested by the specified options.
43
45 The following operand shall be supported:
46 file A pathname of an input file. If no file operands are specified,
48 the standard input shall be used.
49
52 The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are speci‐
53 fied. See the INPUT FILES section.
54
56 The input files may be of any type.
57
59 The following environment variables shall affect the execution of wc:
60 LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables
62 that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of
63 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Vari‐
64 ables for the precedence of internationalization variables used
65 to determine the values of locale categories.)
66 LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all
68 the other internationalization variables.
69 LC_CTYPE
71 Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of
72 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
73 opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files)
74 and which characters are defined as white space characters.
75 LC_MESSAGES
77 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
78 and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error
79 and informative messages written to standard output.
80 NLSPATH
82 Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
83 LC_MESSAGES .
84
87 Default.
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90 By default, the standard output shall contain an entry for each input
91 file of the form:
92 "%d %d %d %s\n", <newlines>, <words>, <bytes>, <file>
95 If the -m option is specified, the number of characters shall replace
97 the <bytes> field in this format.
98 If any options are specified and the -l option is not specified, the
100 number of <newline>s shall not be written.
101 If any options are specified and the -w option is not specified, the
103 number of words shall not be written.
104 If any options are specified and neither -c nor -m is specified, the
106 number of bytes or characters shall not be written.
107 If no input file operands are specified, no name shall be written and
109 no <blank>s preceding the pathname shall be written.
110 If more than one input file operand is specified, an additional line
112 shall be written, of the same format as the other lines, except that
113 the word total (in the POSIX locale) shall be written instead of a
114 pathname and the total of each column shall be written as appropriate.
115 Such an additional line, if any, is written at the end of the output.
116
118 The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
119
121 None.
122
124 None.
125
127 The following exit values shall be returned:
128 0 Successful completion.
130 >0 An error occurred.
132
135 Default.
136 The following sections are informative.
138
140 The -m option is not a switch, but an option at the same level as -c.
141 Thus, to produce the full default output with character counts instead
142 of bytes, the command required is:
143 wc -mlw
146
148 None.
149
151 The output file format pseudo- printf() string differs from the System
152 V version of wc:
153 "%7d%7d%7d %s\n"
156 which produces possibly ambiguous and unparsable results for very large
158 files, as it assumes no number shall exceed six digits.
159 Some historical implementations use only <space>, <tab>, and <newline>
161 as word separators. The equivalent of the ISO C standard isspace()
162 function is more appropriate.
163 The -c option stands for "character" count, even though it counts
165 bytes. This stems from the sometimes erroneous historical view that
166 bytes and characters are the same size. Due to international require‐
167 ments, the -m option (reminiscent of "multi-byte") was added to obtain
168 actual character counts.
169 Early proposals only specified the results when input files were text
171 files. The current specification more closely matches historical prac‐
172 tice. (Bytes, words, and <newline>s are counted separately and the
173 results are written when an end-of-file is detected.)
174 Historical implementations of the wc utility only accepted one argument
176 to specify the options -c, -l, and -w. Some of them also had multiple
177 occurrences of an option cause the corresponding count to be written
178 multiple times and had the order of specification of the options affect
179 the order of the fields on output, but did not document either of
180 these. Because common usage either specifies no options or only one
181 option, and because none of this was documented, the changes required
182 by this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 should not break many historical
183 applications (and do not break any historical conforming applications).
184
186 None.
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189 cksum
190
192 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
193 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
194 -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
195 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
196 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
197 event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
198 The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
199 is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
200 at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
201IEEE/The Open Group 2003 WC(P)