Count lines / words / bytes in a file
wc is the Swiss Army knife for file statistics. Combine flags or chain with other commands.
$ wc -l file.txt # lines
wc -w file.txt # words
wc -c file.txt # bytes
# Count non-empty lines:
grep -c . file.txt
# Total lines across multiple files:
wc -l *.log | tail -1
wordcounter2026-04-19
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