head

outputs the first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output

TLDR

Display first 10 lines of a file

$ head path/to/file

Display first 5 lines of a file

$ head -n 5 path/to/file

Display first 100 bytes of a file

$ head -c 100 path/to/file

Display all but the last 5 lines

$ head -n -5 path/to/file

Display first lines of multiple files

$ head path/to/file1 path/to/file2

Suppress filename headers

$ head -q path/to/file1 path/to/file2

head outputs the first 10 lines of each FILE to standard output. When processing multiple files, it precedes each with a header containing the filename. If no file is specified or when FILE is "-", it reads from standard input.

PARAMETERS

-c, --bytes=[-]NUM

Print the first NUM bytes of each file; with leading "-", print all but the last NUM bytes

-n, --lines=[-]NUM

Print the first NUM lines instead of 10; with leading "-", print all but the last NUM lines

-q, --quiet, --silent

Never print headers giving filenames

-v, --verbose

Always print headers giving filenames

-z, --zero-terminated

Use NUL as line delimiter instead of newline

INSTALL

sudo apt install coreutils

sudo dnf install coreutils

sudo pacman -S coreutils

sudo apk add coreutils

sudo zypper install coreutils

brew install coreutils

nix profile install nixpkgs#coreutils

CAVEATS

NUM may have a multiplier suffix: b (512), kB (1000), K (1024), MB (1000*1000), M (1024*1024), and so on for G, T, P, E, Z, Y. Binary prefixes like KiB, MiB are also supported.

HISTORY

head has been part of Unix since early versions and is included in GNU coreutils.