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

# NAME

head — display first lines of a file

# SYNOPSIS

head | [-qv] [-n count] [-c byte_count] [file ...]

# DESCRIPTION

This filter displays the first count lines of each of the specified files, or of the standard input if no files are specified. If count is omitted it defaults to 10. If -c byte_count is specified, head counts bytes instead of lines.

If more than a single file is specified, or the -v option is used, each file is preceded by a header consisting of the string “==> XXX ≤=” where “XXX” is the name of the file. The -q flag disables the printing of the header in all cases.

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

# COMPATIBILITY

The historic command line syntax of head is supported by this implementation.

This command is mostly compatible with GNU extensions to head.

# SEE ALSO

tail(1)

# STANDARDS

The head utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (“POSIX.2”).

# HISTORY

The head utility appeared in 3.0BSD. It was enhanced to include the -c, -q, and -v options for NetBSD 2.1.

May 4, 2004 | NetBSD 6.0