HEAD(1)                 FreeBSD General Commands Manual                HEAD(1)

NAME

     head - display first lines of a file

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

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

     The following options are available:

     -c bytes, --bytes=bytes
             Print bytes of each of the specified files.

     -n count, --lines=count
             Print count lines of each of the specified files.

             Both count and bytes may also be specified with size suffixes
             supported by expand_number(3).

     -q, --quiet, --silent
             Suppresses printing of headers when multiple files are being
             examined.

     -v, --verbose
             Prepend each file with a header.

     If more than a single file is specified, or if 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.

EXAMPLES

     To display the first 500 lines of the file foo:

           $ head -n 500 foo

     head can be used in conjunction with tail(1) in the following way to, for
     example, display only line 500 from the file foo:

           $ head -n 500 foo | tail -n 1

SEE ALSO

     tail(1), expand_number(3)

HISTORY

     The head command appeared in PWB UNIX.

FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD         June 12, 2022                         HEAD(1)