Tell me more ×
Unix & Linux Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of Linux, FreeBSD and other Un*x-like operating systems.. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 5 down vote favorite

I'm sure there are many ways to do this: how can I count the number of lines in a text file?

$ <cmd> file.txt
1020 lines
share|improve this question

3 Answers

up vote 18 down vote accepted

The standard way is with wc, which takes arguments to specify what it should count (bytes, chars, words, etc.); -l is for lines:

$ wc -l file.txt
1020 file.txt
share|improve this answer
up vote 8 down vote

As Michael said, wc -l is the way to go. But, just in case you inexplicably have bash, perl, or awk but not wc, here are a few more solutions:

Bash-only

$ LINECT=0; while read -r LINE; do (( LINECT++ )); done < file.txt; echo $LINECT

Perl Solutions

$ perl -lne 'END { print $. }' file.txt

and the far less readable:

$ perl -lne '}{ print $.' file.txt

Awk Solution

$  awk 'END {print NR}' file.txt
share|improve this answer
up vote 4 down vote

Steven D forgot GNU sed:

sed -n $= file.txt

Also, if you want the count without outputting the filename and you're using wc:

wc -l < file.txt

Just for the heck of it:

cat -n file.txt | tail -n 1 | cut -f1
share|improve this answer
2  
Or grep -c '', or tr -dc '\n' | wc -c, or nl -ba -nln | tail -n 1 |sed -e 's/[^0-9].*//'... Is any of these useful in itself (as opposed to things to build upon to make a program that does more than counting lines), other than wc -l and pure (ba)sh? – Gilles Dec 3 '10 at 1:58
+1. Small note: cat -n is a GNU extension. – Steven D Dec 3 '10 at 2:03
1  
@Gilles: I think the phrase "many ways" in the question triggered a challenge that Steve and I rose to. – Dennis Williamson Dec 3 '10 at 2:03
1  
@Gilles: sed 's/.*//' file.txt | uniq -c – Dennis Williamson Dec 3 '10 at 2:30
2  
@Gilles: Oh, you meant first. uniq -c -w 0 file.txt and you can cut -c -7 to keep only the number. Or, more POSIXly: uniq -c file.txt | awk '{c+=$1}END{print c}'. How about dc (even though it's not POSIX)? uniq -c file.txt | cut -c -7 | sed '$alax' | dc -e '[pq]sb[+z1=blax]sa' -. bc is POSIX: uniq -c file.txt | cut -c -7 | sed -n ':a;${s/\n/ + /gp;b};N;ba' | bc. The easy answer if you assume a limited line length: uniq -c -f 100000 file.txt. – Dennis Williamson Dec 3 '10 at 16:21
show 6 more comments

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.