Bash 5 reference · Text and System Tools

wc (Linux command)

Count lines, words, characters and bytes in files or input; wc -l is the usual way to count lines or results.

Bash 5

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Syntax

wc [-l] [-w] [-c] [-m] [FILE...]

Lines and words

printf 'a b\nc\n' > f.txt
wc -l f.txt
wc -w < f.txt

Output

2 f.txt
3

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

Bytes versus characters

printf 'café' | wc -c
printf 'café' | wc -m

Output

5
4

Run this on your computer — see “Get Started” for setup.

head and tail · Show the first or last lines of files, skip headers, and follow growing log files with tail -f.
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