HEAD(1) | General Commands Manual | HEAD(1)

# NAME

`head` — display first few lines of files

# SYNOPSIS

`head` | [`-`count | `-n` count] [file ...]

# DESCRIPTION

The `head` utility copies the first count lines of each specified file to the standard output. If no files are named, `head` copies lines from the standard input. If count is omitted, it defaults to 10.

The options are as follows:

`-`count | `-n` count
  Copy the first count lines of each input file to the standard output. count must be a positive decimal integer.

If more than one file is specified, `head` precedes the output of each file with the following, in order to distinguish files:

`==> file <==`

# EXIT STATUS

The `head` utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

# EXAMPLES

To display the first 500 lines of the file foo:

`$ head -n 500 foo`

`head` can be used in conjunction with tail(1) in the following way to, for example, display only line 500 from the file foo:

`$ head -n 500 foo | tail -1`

# SEE ALSO

cat(1), cut(1), less(1), more(1), tail(1)

# STANDARDS

The `head` utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”) specification.

The historic syntax `-`count is supported by this implementation.

# HISTORY

The `head` utility first appeared in 1BSD.

# AUTHORS

Bill Joy, August 24, 1977.

October 25, 2015 | Debian