XK0-006 System Management Practice Question
Which command displays the number of lines, words, and characters in a file?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse the default behavior of `wc` (which shows all three counts) with options like `-w` or `-l` that only show one metric, or they mistakenly think `stat` provides line/word counts.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
wc file.txt
The `wc` command without any options displays the number of lines, words, and characters in a file, in that order. By default, `wc` counts newline characters (lines), whitespace-delimited tokens (words), and bytes (characters) in the specified file. This makes option A the correct choice for displaying all three counts.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
wc file.txt
Why this is correct
wc displays line, word, and byte counts.
- ✗
wc -w file.txt
Why it's wrong here
This shows only word count.
- ✗
cat file.txt | wc -l
Why it's wrong here
This shows only line count.
- ✗
stat file.txt
Why it's wrong here
stat shows metadata, not word/line counts.
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