NetBSD/usr.bin/wc/wc.1

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.\"     from: @(#)wc.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
.\"
.Dd September 1, 2019
.Dt WC 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm wc
.Nd word, line, and byte count
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl c | Fl m
.Op Fl Llw
.Op Ar file ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility displays the number of lines, words, bytes and characters contained in each
input
.Ar file
(or standard input, by default) to the standard output.
A line is defined as a string of characters delimited by a <newline>
character,
and a word is defined as a string of characters delimited by white space
characters.
White space characters are the set of characters for which the
.Xr iswspace 3
function returns true.
If more than one input file is specified, a line of cumulative counts
for all the files is displayed on a separate line after the output for
the last file.
.Pp
The following options are available:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl c
The number of bytes in each input file
is written to the standard output.
.It Fl L
The number of characters in the longest line of each input file
is written to the standard output.
.It Fl l
The number of lines in each input file
is written to the standard output.
.It Fl m
The number of characters in each input file
is written to the standard output.
.It Fl w
The number of words in each input file
is written to the standard output.
.El
.Pp
When an option is specified,
.Nm
only
reports the
information requested by that option.
The default action is equivalent to all the flags
.Fl clw
having been specified.
.Pp
The following operands are available:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Ar file
A pathname of an input file.
.El
.Pp
If no file names
are specified, the standard input is used and
no file name is displayed.
.Pp
By default, the standard output contains a line for each
input file of the form:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
lines	 words	bytes	file_name
.Ed
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std wc
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
Historically, the
.Nm
utility was documented to define a word as a ``maximal string of
characters delimited by
.Aq space ,
.Aq tab
or
.Aq newline
characters''.
The implementation, however, didn't handle non-printing characters
correctly so that ``  ^D^E  '' counted as 6 spaces, while ``foo^D^Ebar''
counted as 8 characters.
.Bx 4
systems after
.Bx 4.3
modified the implementation to be consistent
with the documentation.
This implementation defines a ``word'' in terms of the
.Xr iswspace 3
function, as required by
.St -p1003.2 .
.Pp
The
.Fl L
option is a non-standard extension, compatible with the
.Fl L
option of the GNU and
.Fx
.Nm
utilities.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr iswspace 3
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
utility conforms to
.St -p1003.2-92 .
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
utility appeared in
.At v1 .