GNU bug report logs - #9449
Bug report on 'wc' : characters count adds one character

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: "Laurent TARRISSE" <ltarrisse <at> midilibre.com>
Subject: bug#9449: closed (Re: bug#9449: Bug report on 'wc' : characters
 count adds one character)
Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:30:03 +0000

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Your bug report

#9449: Bug report on 'wc' : characters count adds one character

which was filed against the coreutils package, has been closed.

The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to 9449 <at> debbugs.gnu.org.

-- 
9449: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=9449
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems

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From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Laurent TARRISSE <ltarrisse <at> midilibre.com>
Cc: 9449-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#9449: Bug report on 'wc' : characters count adds one character
Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:25:28 -0600

tag 9449 notabug
thanks

On 09/06/2011 07:49 AM, Laurent TARRISSE wrote:
>> echo toto | wc --chars
> 5

Thanks for the report; however, this is correct.  wc is counting the 
newline output by echo.

Try these to see the difference:

$ printf toto | wc --chars
4
$ echo toto | od -tx1z

> Why does 'wc' add one character ?

It doesn't.  Echo does.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake <at> redhat.com    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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From: "Laurent TARRISSE" <ltarrisse <at> midilibre.com>
To: <bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Bug report on 'wc' : characters count adds one character
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 15:49:24 +0200

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Hi,

Documentation on 'wc' says:
----------------------------------------------
wc -m, --chars
              print the character counts

----------------------------------------------

But here follows the output I get:

>echo toto | wc --chars
5
>echo five | wc --chars
5
>echo four | wc --chars
5
>echo f  | wc --chars
2
>echo "" | wc --chars
1

Why does 'wc' add one character ?

Thanks.

----------------------------------------------
UNIX VERSION:
----------------------------------------------
>uname -a
Linux jdm-qualiac-srv-trv.midilibre.com 2.6.9-100.ELsmp #1 SMP Tue Feb 1 12:04:42 EST 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
>uname -r
2.6.9-100.ELsmp
>cat /etc/issue
Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4 (Nahant Update 9)
Kernel \r on an \m

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