WC(1) General Commands Manual WC(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

wc - Print newline, word, and byte counts for each FILE, and a total line if more than one FILE is specified.

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**wc** \[OPTION]... \[FILE]...

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

Print newline, word, and byte counts for each FILE, and a total line if more than one FILE is specified.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**-c**, **--bytes**](#c)

print the byte counts

[**-m**, **--chars**](#m)

print the character counts

[**--files0-from** *<F>*](#files0)

read input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If F is - then read names from standard input

[**-l**, **--lines**](#l)

print the newline counts

[**-L**, **--max-line-length**](#L)

print the length of the longest line

[**--total** *<WHEN>*](#total)

when to print a line with total counts; WHEN can be: auto, always, only, never

[**-w**, **--words**](#w)

print the word counts

[**-h**, **--help**](#h)

Print help

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Print version

\[*files*]

# [VERSION](#VERSION)

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

2026-10-08

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Document: wc(1) from uutils 0.12.0-r2 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils