[unix-history] / man6 / wc.6

.th WC VI 8/25/77
.sh NAME
wc \*- word count
.sh SYNOPSIS
.bd wc
[
.bd \-
]
[ name ... ]
.sh DESCRIPTION
.it 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 printing characters
delimited by spaces, tabs or newlines.
All other characters are simply ignored.
.s3
The optional
.bd \-
suppresses all the garbage for a word count only.
.s3
If the file
.it sentence
contains
.s3
.dt
	Now is the time for all good men to come
.br
	to the aid of their party.
.s3
on two lines then
.it "wc sentence"
would give
.s3
      2      16      68 sentence
.s3
indicating that there are 2 lines, 16 words and 68 characters in
sentence.
Note that the counts are for successively smaller pieces of the file,
although occasionally a file will have more lines than words.
.sh SEE\ ALSO
grep (I)
.sh BUGS
Commit	Line	Data
0b14d649 BJ	1	.th WC VI 8/25/77
	2	.sh NAME
	3	wc \*- word count
	4	.sh SYNOPSIS
	5	.bd wc
	6	[
	7	.bd \-
	8	]
	9	[ name ... ]
	10	.sh DESCRIPTION
	11	.it Wc
	12	counts lines, words, and characters in the named files,
	13	or in the standard input if no name appears.
	14	A word is a maximal string of printing characters
	15	delimited by spaces, tabs or newlines.
	16	All other characters are simply ignored.
	17	.s3
	18	The optional
	19	.bd \-
	20	suppresses all the garbage for a word count only.
	21	.s3
	22	If the file
	23	.it sentence
	24	contains
	25	.s3
	26	.dt
	27	Now is the time for all good men to come
	28	.br
	29	to the aid of their party.
	30	.s3
	31	on two lines then
	32	.it "wc sentence"
	33	would give
	34	.s3
	35	2 16 68 sentence
	36	.s3
	37	indicating that there are 2 lines, 16 words and 68 characters in
	38	sentence.
	39	Note that the counts are for successively smaller pieces of the file,
	40	although occasionally a file will have more lines than words.
	41	.sh SEE\ ALSO
	42	grep (I)
	43	.sh BUGS