head

head: output the first part of files.

Synopsis

head [-n lines] [-c bytes] [file…]

Description

head writes the first 10 lines of each file to standard output. With no file, or where a file is -, it reads standard input.

With more than one file, each one’s output is preceded by a header, ==> name <== (standard input for -), with a blank line between files.

Options

-n lines, -nlines, -lines

Print the first lines lines instead of 10. -n also turns off an earlier -c.

-c bytes, -cbytes

Print the first bytes bytes instead of lines.

Exit status

0 on success; 1 if a file could not be opened or a number was invalid.

Examples

head -n 3 /init.lua
ls -1 | head -5

Notes

Negative counts (GNU’s “all but the last n”) are not supported.

See also

tail(1), cat(1), less(1)