wc

wc [options] [files]

Word count. Print a character, word, and line count for files. If multiple files, print totals as well. If no files are given, read standard input. See other examples under ls and sort.

Options

-c

Print byte count only.

-C

Print character count only. This will be different than -c in a multibyte character environment. Solaris only.

-l

Print line count only.

-m

Same as -C. Solaris 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 file named by $file (don't display filename):

wc -l < $file