wc
Print newline, word, and byte counts for each file.
Synopsis
wc [OPTION]... [FILE]...
Examples
wc file.txt
wc -l *.py
cat log.txt | wc -l
find . -name '*.ts' | wc -l
Common options
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
| -l | Print line count |
| -w | Print word count |
| -c | Print byte count |
| -m | Print character count |
| -L | Print length of longest line |
About wc
The `wc` command print newline, word, and byte counts for each file. Text viewing and editing commands are fundamental tools in any Linux user's toolkit.
Linux treats almost everything as a file, so the ability to quickly inspect, filter, transform, and edit file contents from the command line is critical. These commands are regularly combined with pipes and redirects to build powerful data-processing pipelines.
The command accepts 5 commonly used flags shown above, though the full set of options is available in the man page (`man wc`). The 4 examples on this page cover typical real-world usage patterns that you can copy and adapt for your own workflows.
Related commands
More File Viewing & Editing Commands
Other commands in the File Viewing & Editing category