NAME

wc − word count

SYNOPSIS

wc [ −lwc ] [ name ... ]

DESCRIPTION

Wc counts lines, words and characters in the named files, or in the standard input if no name appears.  A word is a maximal string of characters delimited by spaces, tabs or newlines. 

If an argument beginning with one of "lwc" is present, the specified counts (lines, words,  or characters) are selected by the letters l, w, or c.  Note that the default options are: −lwc. 

EXAMPLE

wc filea fileb filec

reports the number of lines, words, and characters in each of the files. 

7th Edition  —  1/22/82