xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/wc/wc.1 (revision 6990ffd8a95caaba6858ad44ff1b3157d1efba8f)
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35.\"     @(#)wc.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
36.\" $FreeBSD$
37.\"
38.Dd April 19, 1994
39.Dt WC 1
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm wc
43.Nd word, line, and byte count
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Nm
46.Op Fl clw
47.Op Ar
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Nm
51utility displays the number of lines, words, and bytes contained in each
52input
53.Ar file
54(or standard input, by default) to the standard output.
55A line is defined as a string of characters delimited by a <newline>
56character,
57and a word is defined as a string of characters delimited by white space
58characters.
59White space characters are the set of characters for which the
60.Xr isspace 3
61function returns true.
62If more than one input file is specified, a line of cumulative counts
63for all the files is displayed on a separate line after the output for
64the last file.
65.Pp
66The following options are available:
67.Bl -tag -width Ds
68.It Fl c
69The number of bytes in each input file
70is written to the standard output.
71.It Fl l
72The number of lines in each input file
73is written to the standard output.
74.It Fl w
75The number of words in each input file
76is written to the standard output.
77.El
78.Pp
79When an option is specified,
80.Nm
81only reports the information requested by that option.
82The default action is equivalent to specifying all of the flags.
83.Pp
84If no files are specified, the standard input is used and no
85file name is displayed.
86.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
87.Ex -std
88.Sh SEE ALSO
89.Xr isspace 3
90.Sh COMPATIBILITY
91Historically, the
92.Nm
93utility was documented to define a word as a ``maximal string of
94characters delimited by <space>, <tab> or <newline> characters''.
95The implementation, however, didn't handle non-printing characters
96correctly so that ``  ^D^E  '' counted as 6 spaces, while ``foo^D^Ebar''
97counted as 8 characters.
98.Bx 4
99systems after
100.Bx 4.3
101modified the implementation to be consistent
102with the documentation.
103This implementation defines a ``word'' in terms of the
104.Xr isspace 3
105function, as required by
106.St -p1003.2 .
107.Sh STANDARDS
108The
109.Nm
110function conforms to
111.St -p1003.2 .
112.Sh HISTORY
113A
114.Nm
115command appeared in
116.At v1 .
117