GNU bug report logs - #20954
wc - linux

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Message #18 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: tele <swojskichlopak <at> wp.pl>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: wc - linux
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2015 12:19:59 +0200

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tag 20954 + notabug
close 20954
thanks

tele wrote:

> Hi!

Hi!

>  From terminal:
>
> $ a="" ; echo $s | wc -l
> 1

Do you mean $a instead of $s?  Either way is the same though assuming
$s is empty too.

- Yes, my mistake :-)

> Should be 0 , yes ?

No.  Should be 1.  You have forgotten about the newline at the end of
the command.  The echo will terminate with a newline.  You can see
this with od.

  echo | od -tx1 -c
  0000000  0a
           \n

Since this appears to be a usage error I have closed the bug.  Please
feel free to follow up with more information.  We will read it.  And
we appreciate additional communication!  I am simply closing it to
keep the accounting straight.

Bob

# "echo" gives in new line, "echo -n" subtracts 1 line, but "wc -l" can count only from new line,
# so if something exist inside first line "wc -l" can not count. :-(
# example:
#
#	$ a="j" ; echo  "$a"  |  wc -l
#	1
#
#	$ a="" ; echo  "$a"  |  wc -l
#	1
#
#	$ a="" ; echo -n "$a"  |  wc -l
#	0
#
#	$ a="j" ; echo -n "$a"  |  wc -l
#	0

So,

$ a="" ; echo  "$a"  |  sed '/^\s*$/d' | wc -l
0

$ a="3" ; echo  "$a"  |  sed '/^\s*$/d' | wc -l
1

Can be added option to "wc" to fix this problem without use sed in future ?
Thanks for helping :-)

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