title: What does a line count of a binary file mean?
body: <pre><code>:~$ wc -l bitmap.bmp
  12931 bitmap.bmp
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would guess a binary file is like a stream, with no lines on it. So what does it mean when you talk about lines in a binary file?</p>
  
  <p>(note: "wc -l" counts the lines in a file)</p>
  
  <p>Alex Taylor pointed out below, as I suspected, that wc is counting the number of /n chars in the file.</p>
  
  <p>So the question becomes: 
  The '\n' characters that wc finds are there randomly when it translates binary to text or do actually exist in the binary file? As something as <strong>b'\n'</strong> (in Python)? And if yes, why would someone use the newline char in a binary file?</p>