.TH WC 1L "GNU Text Utilities" "FSF" \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
wc \- print the number of bytes, words, and lines in files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B wc
[\-clw] [\-\-bytes] [\-\-chars] [\-\-lines] [\-\-words]
[\-\-help] [\-\-version] [file...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page
documents the GNU version of
.BR wc .
.B wc
counts the number of bytes, whitespace-separated words, and newlines
in each given file, or the standard input if none are given or when a
file named `\-' is given.  It prints one line of counts for each file,
and if the file was given as an argument, it prints the filename
following the counts.  If more than one filename is given,
.B wc
prints a final line containing the cumulative counts, with the
filename `total'.  The counts are printed in the order: lines, words,
bytes.
.PP
By default,
.B wc
prints all three counts.  Options can specify that only certain counts
be printed.  Options do not undo others previously given, so
.BI wc " \-\-bytes \-\-words"
prints both the byte counts and the word counts.
.SS OPTIONS
.TP
.I "\-c, \-\-bytes, \-\-chars"
Print only the byte counts.
.TP
.I "\-w, \-\-words"
Print only the word counts.
.TP
.I "\-l, \-\-lines"
Print only the newline counts.
.TP
.I "\-\-help"
Print a usage message and exit with a non-zero status.
.TP
.I "\-\-version"
Print version information on standard error then exit.