Updated: 2022/Sep/29

Please read Privacy Policy. It's for your privacy.

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.

EXIT STATUS
     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.

NetBSD 10.99                      May 4, 2004                     NetBSD 10.99