Linux How to count words and lines in a text file

If you want to count words in some text file you could use:

wc -w <file>

example for file 2600.txt (War and Peace from Leo Tolstoy) from Guttenberg Project :

wc -w 2600.txt

output:

566321 2600.txt

 If you want to count lines in some text file you could use:

wc -l <file>

the same file for example

wc -l 2600.txt

output:

65008 2600.txt

Full options list for wc command:

• -c or --bytes byte counts
• -m or --chars character counts
• -l or --lines newline counts
• -L or --max-line-length lenght of longest line
• -w or --words word counts

 also:

• --help
• --version