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 file.txt` outputs newline, word, and byte counts in a single pass, directly satisfying the stem's requirement for all three metrics. Unlike `cat`, `grep -c`, or `sed`, which report only lines or content, `wc` is purpose-built for counting, so it returns the exact line, word, and character totals requested.
- ✗
wc -w file.txt
Why it's wrong here
The -w flag restricts wc to counting words only, omitting the line and character counts the question demands. Plain wc file.txt prints all three. The flag is tempting because word counts alone suit scripts or prose-length checks, but here it suppresses two required figures.
- ✗
cat file.txt | wc -l
Why it's wrong here
This shows only line count.
- ✗
stat file.txt
Why it's wrong here
stat reports file metadata such as size, inode, permissions and timestamps, not line, word and character counts. It is tempting because it summarises file attributes, but it is designed for filesystem metadata, whereas wc counts lines, words and bytes.
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