wc

Additional Notes

wc counts text. The name means word count, but it can also count lines, bytes, and characters.

It is useful in scripts, pipelines, and quick checks such as counting log lines or files returned by another command.

Syntax

wc [options] [file...]

Parameters

• options: Flags that change how wc behaves.
• file: Text file to read or process.

Common Options

• -l, --lines: Count lines.
• -w, --words: Count words.
• -c, --bytes: Count bytes.
• -m, --chars: Count characters.
• -L, --max-line-length: Show length of the longest line.

Examples

wc file.txt

Show lines, words, bytes, and filename.

wc -l app.log

Count lines in a file.

grep "error" app.log | wc -l

Count matching log lines.

find . -type f | wc -l

Count files under the current directory.

wc -L file.txt

Show the longest line length.

Practical Notes

• wc -l counts newline characters, which usually means lines.
• When reading from a pipe, wc does not print a filename.
• Use wc -c for byte size and wc -m for character count.
• For disk usage, use du, not wc.