Linux wc command

Linux 命令大全Linux Command Reference

The Linux wc command is used to count the number of words.

Using the wc command, we can calculate the number of Bytes, words, or columns in a file. If no file name is specified, or the given file name is "-", the wc command reads data from the standard input device.

Syntax

wc [-clw][--help][--version][文件...]

Options：

  • -c or --bytes or --chars Only display the number of Bytes.
  • -l or --lines Display the number of lines.
  • -w or --words Only display the number of words.
  • --help Online help.
  • --version Display version information.

Examples

By default, wc will calculate the number of lines, words, and bytes in the specified file. The command used is:

wc testfile

First, view the contents of the testfile file, and you can see:

$ cat testfile  
Linux networks are becoming more and more common, but scurity is often an overlooked  
issue. Unfortunately, in today’s environment all networks are potential hacker targets,  
fro0m tp-secret military research networks to small home LANs.  
Linux Network Securty focuses on securing Linux in a networked environment, where the  
security of the entire network needs to be considered rather than just isolated machines.  
It uses a mix of theory and practicl techniques to teach administrators how to install and  
use security applications, as well as how the applcations work and why they are necesary.

Use wc to count, the result is as follows:

$ wc testfile           # testfile文件的统计信息  
3 92 598 testfile       # testfile文件的行数为3、单词数92、字节数598

Among them, the 3 numbers represent the number of lines, words, and bytes of the testfile file, respectively.

If you want to count the information of multiple files at the same time, for example, count testfile, testfile_1, and testfile_2 simultaneously, you can use the following command:

wc testfile testfile_1 testfile_2   #统计三个文件的信息

The output is as follows:

$ wc testfile testfile_1 testfile_2  #统计三个文件的信息  
3 92 598 testfile                    #第一个文件行数为3、单词数92、字节数598  
9 18 78 testfile_1                   #第二个文件的行数为9、单词数18、字节数78  
3 6 32 testfile_2                    #第三个文件的行数为3、单词数6、字节数32  
15 116 708 总用量                    #三个文件总共的行数为15、单词数116、字节数708

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