freebsd/usr.bin/wc/wc.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"     @(#)wc.1	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
.\"
.Dd April 19, 1994
.Dt WC 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm wc
.Nd word, line, and byte count
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm wc
.Op Fl clw
.Op Ar file ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm wc
utility displays the number of lines, words, and bytes contained in each
input
.Ar file
(or standard input, by default) to the standard output.
A line is defined as a string of characters delimited by a <newline>
character,
and a word is defined as a string of characters delimited by white space
characters.
White space characters are the set of characters for which the
.Xr isspace 3
function returns true.
If more than one input file is specified, a line of cumulative counts
for all the files is displayed on a separate line after the output for
the last file.
.Pp
The following options are available:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl c
The number of bytes in each input file
is written to the standard output.
.It Fl l
The number of lines in each input file
is written to the standard output.
.It Fl w
The number of words in each input file
is written to the standard output.
.El
.Pp
When an option is specified,
.Nm wc
only reports the information requested by that option.
The default action is equivalent to specifying all of the flags.
.Pp
If no files are specified, the standard input is used and no
file name is displayed.
.Pp
The
.Nm wc
utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr isspace 3
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
Historically, the
.Nm wc
utility was documented to define a word as a ``maximal string of
characters delimited by <space>, <tab> or <newline> characters''.
The implementation, however, didn't handle non-printing characters
correctly so that ``  ^D^E  '' counted as 6 spaces, while ``foo^D^Ebar''
counted as 8 characters.
4BSD systems after 4.3BSD modified the implementation to be consistent
with the documentation.
This implementation defines a ``word'' in terms of the
.Xr isspace 3
function, as required by
.St -p1003.2 .
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm wc
function conforms to
.St -p1003.2 .