WBJECA 2025 — Computer PYQ

In Unix-like systems, the wc (word count) command is the standard utility used to compute the number of lines, words, and bytes/characters in a given file or stream of text.

When you run the command wc filename, it outputs the results in a specific order:

1. Number of lines ($L$)

2. Number of words ($W$)

3. Number of bytes/characters ($C$)

The mathematical output can be represented as a vector:

$$Output=\{L,W,C\}$$

If you wish to isolate a specific metric, you can use flags with the command. For example, to count only the lines, the command is wc -l:

$$L=\text{count of lines}$$

• count: This is not a standard Unix command for file statistics.

• nl: This command is used to number the lines of a file while displaying its content.

• cat: This command is used to concatenate and display the entire contents of a file to the standard output.

By default, without any flags, wc provides a comprehensive summary of the file's size and contents, making it the correct choice for this task.