<s>
(	O
short	O
for	O
word	O
count	O
)	O
is	O
a	O
command	B-Application
in	O
Unix	B-Application
,	O
Plan	B-Operating_System
9	I-Operating_System
,	O
Inferno	B-Operating_System
,	O
and	O
Unix-like	B-Operating_System
operating	I-Operating_System
systems	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
program	O
reads	O
either	O
standard	O
input	O
or	O
a	O
list	O
of	O
computer	B-Operating_System
files	I-Operating_System
and	O
generates	O
one	O
or	O
more	O
of	O
the	O
following	O
statistics	O
:	O
newline	O
count	O
,	O
word	O
count	O
,	O
and	O
byte	B-Application
count	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Sample	O
execution	O
of	O
wc	B-Application
:	O
</s>
<s>
Newer	O
versions	O
of	O
wc	B-Application
can	O
differentiate	O
between	O
byte	B-Application
and	O
character	O
count	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
difference	O
arises	O
with	O
Unicode	O
which	O
includes	O
multi-byte	O
characters	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
desired	O
behaviour	O
is	O
selected	O
with	O
the	O
-c	O
or	O
-m	O
options	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Through	O
a	O
pipeline	B-Operating_System
,	O
it	O
can	O
also	O
be	O
used	O
to	O
preview	O
the	O
output	O
size	O
of	O
a	O
command	B-Application
with	O
a	O
potentially	O
large	O
output	O
,	O
without	O
it	O
printing	O
the	O
text	O
into	O
the	O
console	O
:	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
inherited	O
into	O
the	O
first	O
version	O
of	O
POSIX.1	O
and	O
the	O
Single	O
Unix	B-Application
Specification	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
appeared	O
in	O
Version	B-Operating_System
1	I-Operating_System
Unix	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
GNU	B-Operating_System
wc	B-Application
used	O
to	O
be	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
GNU	B-Operating_System
textutils	B-Application
package	O
;	O
it	O
is	O
now	O
part	O
of	O
GNU	B-Application
coreutils	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
version	O
of	O
wc	B-Application
bundled	O
in	O
GNU	B-Application
coreutils	I-Application
was	O
written	O
by	O
Paul	O
Rubin	O
and	O
David	O
MacKenzie	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
wc	B-Application
command	B-Application
is	O
also	O
part	O
of	O
ASCII	O
's	O
MSX-DOS2	O
Tools	O
for	O
MSX-DOS	B-Operating_System
version	O
2	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
command	B-Application
is	O
available	O
as	O
a	O
separate	O
package	O
for	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Windows	I-Application
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
GnuWin32	B-Language
project	O
and	O
the	O
UnxUtils	B-Application
collection	O
of	O
native	B-Language
Win32	B-Library
ports	O
of	O
common	O
GNU	B-Operating_System
Unix-like	B-Operating_System
utilities	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
command	B-Application
has	O
also	O
been	O
ported	O
to	O
the	O
IBM	B-Application
i	I-Application
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
