# wc(1) - man - phpman

> **TLDR:** Count lines, words, and bytes.
>
- Count all lines in a file:
  `wc {{-l|--lines}} {{path/to/file}}`
- Count all words in a file:
  `wc {{-w|--words}} {{path/to/file}}`
- Count all bytes in a file:
  `wc {{-c|--bytes}} {{path/to/file}}`
- Count all characters in a file (taking multi-byte characters into account):
  `wc {{-m|--chars}} {{path/to/file}}`
- Count all lines, words, and bytes from `stdin`:
  `{{find .}} | wc`
- Count the length of the longest line in number of characters:
  `wc {{-L|--max-line-length}} {{path/to/file}}`

*Source: tldr-pages*

---

[WC(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/WC/1/markdown)                                       User Commands                                      [WC(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/WC/1/markdown)



## NAME
       wc - print newline, word, and byte counts for each file

## SYNOPSIS
       **wc** [_OPTION_]... [_FILE_]...
       **wc** [_OPTION_]... _--files0-from=F_

## DESCRIPTION
       Print newline, word, and byte counts for each FILE, and a total line if more than one FILE is
       specified.  A word is a non-zero-length sequence of characters delimited by white space.

       With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

       The options below may be used to select which counts are printed, always in the following or‐
       der: newline, word, character, byte, maximum line length.

### -c --bytes
              print the byte counts

### -m --chars
              print the character counts

### -l --lines
              print the newline counts

       **--files0-from**=_F_
              read  input from the files specified by NUL-terminated names in file F; If F is - then
              read names from standard input

### -L --max-line-length
              print the maximum display width

### -w --words
              print the word counts

       **--help** display this help and exit

### --version
              output version information and exit

## AUTHOR
       Written by Paul Rubin and David MacKenzie.

## REPORTING BUGS
       GNU coreutils online help: <<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>>
       Report any translation bugs to <<https://translationproject.org/team/>>

## COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3  or  later
       <<https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>>.
       This  is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to
       the extent permitted by law.

## SEE ALSO
       Full documentation <<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/wc>>
       or available locally via: info '(coreutils) wc invocation'



GNU coreutils 8.32                          January 2026                                       [WC(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/WC/1/markdown)