my-docs/Linux/Basic Administration/15-wc.md

📘 Using the wc Command in Linux/Unix

wc (word count) is a utility that counts lines, words, and bytes or characters in files. It’s useful for quickly getting file size details in text terms.

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⚙️ Syntax

wc [option] file

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🔎 Basic Usage

wc file

Example output:

 5  6 43 file1

This output means:

Number	Meaning
5	Number of lines
6	Number of words
43	Number of bytes

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📋 Common Options

Option	Description	Example
-l	Count lines only	wc -l file
-w	Count words only	wc -w file
-c	Count bytes only	wc -c file
-m	Count characters only	wc -m file

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📌 Notes

• bytes (-c) counts raw bytes, which might differ from characters (-m) in multibyte encodings like UTF-8.
• Without options, wc outputs lines, words, and bytes by default.