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Name

head - output the first part of files

Synopsis

head [OPTION]... [FILE]...

Description

Print the first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. With more than one FILE, precede each with a header giving the file name. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-c, --bytes=[-]N
print the first N bytes of each file; with the leading ‘-’, print all but the last N bytes of each file

-n, --lines=[-]N
print the first N lines instead of the first 10; with the leading ‘-’, print all but the last N lines of each file

-q, --quiet, --silent
never print headers giving file names

-v, --verbose
always print headers giving file names

--help display this help and exit

--version
output version information and exit

N may have a multiplier suffix: b 512, k 1024, m 1024*1024.

Author

Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.

Reporting Bugs

Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.

Copyright

Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

See Also

The full documentation for head is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and head programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info head

should give you access to the complete manual.

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