Master Linux wc: Count Lines, Words, Bytes and More with Practical Examples

What is the wc command?

The wc utility (short for "word count") is a built‑in Unix/Linux tool that reports the number of lines, words, characters, and bytes in a file or standard input.

wc command syntax

wc [OPTION] [FILE]

Run man wc to view the full manual and list all available options.

How to use wc

First, create a sample file named linuxmi.txt and paste the following text (the Python Zen):

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one– and preferably only one –obvious way to do it.[a]
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than right now.[b]
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea – let's do more of those!

Default wc output

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ wc linuxmi.txt

19 137 830 linuxmi.txt

The four columns represent lines, words, bytes, and the file name.

Print only the number of lines

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ wc -l linuxmi.txt

19 linuxmi.txt

Print only the number of words

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ wc -w linuxmi.txt

137 linuxmi.txt

Print only the number of bytes

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ wc -c linuxmi.txt

830 linuxmi.txt

Print only the number of characters

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ wc -m linuxmi.txt

824 linuxmi.txt

Print the length of the longest line

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ wc -L linuxmi.txt

70 linuxmi.txt

Using wc with multiple files

Create two additional files, zimu.txt (alphabet list) and shuzi.txt (numbers 1‑10), or use any two text files.

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ wc linuxmi.txt zimu.txt shuzi.txt

The first three lines show counts for each file; the final line shows the totals.

Combining wc with other Linux commands

Count files or directories in a directory

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ ls www.linuxmi.com | wc -l

Count the number of running processes

linuxmi@linuxmi:~/www.linuxmi.com$ ps | wc -l

Explore more Linux commands

Linux offers a rich set of command‑line utilities; learning how to combine them, as shown with wc, can greatly improve productivity and scripting capabilities.