Final answer:
The command used to count the number of characters in a file is wc, often accompanied by the -m or -c option for counting characters specifically.
Step-by-step explanation:
To count the number of characters in a file, you would use the wc command in a Unix-like operating system's terminal. The wc command stands for "word count" and can display the number of lines, words, and characters in a file. To specifically count only characters, you can use the command with the -m or -c option, like this: wc -m filename or wc -c filename, where 'filename' is the name of the file you are querying.